Jurassic Park: The Isla Nublar Incident
by BuckJohnson
Summary: An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind's most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them for a price. Until something goes wrong...
1. First Iteration

**I've been meaning to get this published for a while now. The following is an edited version of something I did with a friend on a forum site. We both love Jurassic Park, so for fun we collaborated on a "Jurassic Park Interactive Storytelling Game." The results were very interesting and I think they're worth sharing. Be warned though, it's not a perfect story which was kinda the point of the game. I still really enjoyed writing this, which is basically a love letter to the entire franchise that combines the films, novels, and games with some new ideas as well. I hope you like this mess of an experiment and please leave a review, any feedback is appreciated.**

* * *

**First Iteration**

"_At the earliest drawings of the fractal curve, few clues to the underlying mathematical structure will be seen."_

-IAN MALCOLM

In the commercial climate of the 1980s, it was inevitable that a company as ambitious as International Genetic Technologies, Inc., of Palo Alto, would arise. It was equally unsurprising that the genetic crisis it created went unreported. After all, InGen's research was conducted in secret; the actual incident occurred in the most remote region of Central America; and few people were there to witness it. Of those, only a handful survived.

Even at the end, when International Genetic Technologies filed for Chapter 11 protection in San Francisco Superior Court, the proceedings drew little press attention. It appeared so ordinary: InGen was the third small American bioengineering company to fail that year, and the seventh since 1986. Few court documents were made public, since the creditors were Japanese investment consortia, such as Hamaguri and Densaka, companies which traditionally shun publicity. To avoid unnecessary disclosure, Daniel Ross, of Cowan, Swain and Ross, counsel for InGen, also represented the Japanese investors. And the rather unusual petition of the vice consul of Costa Rica was heard behind closed doors. Thus it is not surprising that, within a month, the problems of InGen were quietly and amicably settled.

Parties to that settlement, including the distinguished scientific board of advisers, signed a nondisclosure agreement, and none will speak about what happened - but many of the principal figures in the "Isla Nublar Incident" were not signatories, and were willing to discuss the remarkable events that occurred in June 1989 on a remote island off the west coast of Costa Rica…

* * *

**June 11th, 1989**

**Isla Nublar - 120 miles west of Costa Rica**

A woman ran through the jungles of Isla Nublar, clutching a bleeding arm. In her hand was a Barbasol can of shaving cream. The woman's breathing was ragged, but she continued running regardless, refusing to stop. The wound on her arm was worsening.

A clicking sound rang out in the jungle behind her. The woman fearfully looked back. All she could see were two eyes lit up in the darkness, which encouraged the woman to flee further into the jungle away from them. She picked up a rock off the ground and threw it in a desperate and futile attempt to scare off the creatures that were stalking her.

The woman heard another eerie click and suddenly one of the creatures ran out in front of her. In another direction, another pair of eyes was looking at her. Turning back, she realized that the first set of eyes had gotten closer. The creatures were getting closer.

The woman backed up and tripped. She crawled backwards, hoping that the creatures would not get closer. Her gaze never left the eyes that were staring at her until the woman found herself at the edge of a cliff. Nowhere else to go. A creature leaped from the darkness and a set of jaws snapped at her.

Screaming, the woman fell backwards over the cliff, unable to catch herself. Her body tumbled and slid down the edge of the cliff, falling to the ground.

The exhausted woman picked herself up with some effort, still protectively grasping the Barbasol can of shaving cream, and saw a pair of eyes staring at her. She had not lost her pursuers.

Terrified, the woman ran away from the eyes before falling down an embankment and onto a road. She looked up to see a huge pair of lights coming towards her. Her vision went black.

* * *

**Earlier... **

In the hot, dry band-lands of Montana, Dr. Alan Grant was lying on the ground, his nose inches from the rock, carefully brushing and uncovering some small bone fragments. He was so preoccupied, that he didn't even notice the tall, blonde, attractive woman walking up to him until she was literally standing in front of him.

"Alan?" the woman said. Grant looked up, squinting in the sunlight. The woman pointed into the distance. "Someone's coming."

Grant grunted as he heaved himself up. He was a tall, barrel-chested, bearded man of thirty. He put his hands on his hips, and observed the blue sedan making its way through the dry terrain toward them.

"There's no escape," he said with a sigh.

The blue sedan came closer and closer, driving right into the camp. It stopped, and the driver's-side door opened. A man in a business suit stepped out. He was wearing a white hat, not unlike the one Dr. Grant was wearing. The man looked around, as if looking for someone. One of the diggers went up to him, and after exchanging a few words, pointed at Grant. The business man started making his way toward Grant and Ellie. "Dr. Grant?"

"Yes," Grant said.

The man extended his hand. "Donald Gennaro."

Grant shook his hand. "This is Ellie Sattler," he said, gesturing to his girlfriend.

"Hi," Gennaro said, shaking her hand. "Sorry to jump on you like this, but old John Hammond sent me along to ask you guys a few questions."

"Concerning what?" Grant wanted to know.

"Concerning the old man's latest project," Gennaro said.

Well that's vague, Grant thought, shooting Ellie a glance. "Sure," he said to Gennaro. "Let's go inside."

They walked across the dry ground toward Grant's trailer, aka, the research center.

"How long you guys been out here?" Gennaro wanted to know.

"Sixty cases," Ellie said.

Gennaro squinted at her. "What?"

"We measure time in beer," Grant explained.

"Oh," Gennaro said.

They reached the trailer, and Ellie opened the door and they went in. Grant took off his dusty boots, and walked over to the 'lounge' area, sitting down in a worn-out chair. "Make yourself at home," he urged Gennaro. The man brushed off the sofa before sitting on it.

"Now," he said. "As I said before, Mr. Hammond's working on a new project; let's call it a zoo. A zoo on a remote island in the Pacific. Isla Nublar. Tropical island, very remote."

"Okay," Grant said, nodding.

"He does these kinds of things a lot," Gennaro joked. "Anyway, the zoo's almost ready. Construction's just finishing up, the attractions are all in their pens - we're good to go. Except for one small thing."

"That is?"

"A couple of weeks ago… ten days, I believe it was… a worker was injured… a slight accident to do with a forklift. He sadly passed away, but now, Hammond's investors are quite concerned. They're worried the island is unsafe. I can assure you this accident was isolated, and completely random: a mechanical failure in the forklift. What I mean is, these people are getting worked up over nothing."

"Not nothing, if a worker died," Grant said.

"Everything's been dealt with," Gennaro continued briskly. "The man's family has already received their money. We'd all like to just move on from this incident, but unfortunately, the investors are thinking of withdrawing funds - and that's where you two come in."

Grant raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"You two are… well, let's not beat around the bush. You two are experts. The top minds in your respective fields. Ellie, I believe you do something with prehistoric plants?"

"Paleobotany," Ellie confirmed. "But what's that got to do with it?"

"Our investors are agreeing to make a deal," Gennaro said. "If a couple of experts sign off on the island, they'll continue to fund us. The allegations will be dropped. It would be a huge help," he implored. "Mr. Hammond has generously funded your dig site for the last several years. And, as a thanks, if you agree to sign, he's offering thirty thousand dollars each. That's thirty thousand for both of you to continue funding your dig. As you know, Hammond just loves dinosaurs."

Grant put his beer down on the table. "Mr. Gennaro, this is all well and good. But there's one thing I don't understand. Why do they want us? A couple of dusty fossil-diggers?"

"They… didn't clarify on that point," Gennaro said vaguely.

Grant squinted at the man.

Looking uncomfortable, Gennaro began scraping together his papers, shoving them back in his briefcase. He handed Grant a card. "Let me know if you decide to agree. I would appreciate a quick response as I've many matters to attend to." And he quickly shuffled out of the trailer.

Grant watched him from the window as he got back in his car and drove off in a dust cloud.

"That was weird," Ellie said.

"You got that right," Grant said. "He wouldn't answer the question."

"He lied about it," Ellie stated.

"I think so too," Grant said.

"But still, thirty thousand…"

Grant glanced at the card in his hand. "Well, I suppose I could call John Hammond. Maybe I can wrangle a few straight answers out of him."

* * *

**Biosyn HQ  
Cupertino, California**

The ten directors sitting in the conference room were irritable and impatient. They had been talking among themselves for the last ten minutes, but slowly had fallen silent. Shuffling papers. Looking pointedly at their watches. Lewis Dodgson finally stood.

"Gentlemen, we're here tonight to consider a target of opportunity: InGen."

Dodgson quickly reviewed the background. InGen's start-up in 1975. The purchase of three Cray XMP supercomputers. The purchase of Isla Nublar in Costa Rica. The stockpiling of amber. The unusual donations to zoos around the world, from the New York Zoological Society to the Rantbapur Wildlife Park in India.

"Despite all these clues we still had no idea where InGen might be going. The company seemed obviously focused on animals; and they had hired researchers with an interest in the past-paleobiologists, DNA phylogeneticists, and so on. Then, in 1987, InGen bought an obscure company called Millipore Plastic Products in Nashville, Tennessee. This was an agribusiness company that had recently patented a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell. This plastic could be shaped into an egg and used to grow chick embryos. Starting the following year, InGen took the entire output of this millipore plastic for its own use."

"Dr. Dodgson, this is all very interesting-"

Dodgson continued. "At the same time, construction was begun on Isla Nublar. This involved massive earthworks, including a shallow lake two miles long, in the center of the island. Plans for resort facilities were let out with a high degree of confidentiality, but it appears that InGen has built a private zoo of large dimensions on the island."

One of the directors leaned forward. "Dr. Dodgson. So what?"

"It's not an ordinary zoo," Dodgson said. "This zoo is unique in the world. It seems that InGen has done something quite extraordinary. They have managed to clone extinct animals from the past."

"What animals?"

"Animals that hatch from eggs, and that require a lot of room in a zoo."

"What animals?"

"Dinosaurs," Dodgson said. "They are cloning dinosaurs. What they have done is build the greatest single tourist attraction in the history of the world. As you know, zoos are extremely popular. Last year, more Americans visited zoos than all professional baseball and football games combined. And the Japanese love zoos-there are fifty zoos in Japan, and more being built. And for this zoo, InGen can charge whatever they want, Two thousand dollars a day, ten thousand dollars a day… And then there is the merchandising. The picture books, T-shirts, video games, caps, stuffed toys, comic books, and pets."

"Pets?"

"Of course. If InGen can make full-size dinosaurs, they can also make pygmy dinosaurs as household pets. What child won't want a little dinosaur as a pet? A little patented animal for their very own. InGen will sell millions of them. And InGen will engineer them so that these pet dinosaurs can only eat InGen pet food…"

"Jesus," somebody said.

"Exactly," Dodgson said. "The zoo is the centerpiece of an enormous enterprise."

"You said these dinosaurs will be patented?"

"Yes. Genetically engineered animals can now be patented. The Supreme Court ruled on that in favor of Harvard in 1987. InGen will own its dinosaurs, and no one else can legally make them."

"What prevents us from creating our own dinosaurs?" someone asked.

"Nothing, except that they have a five-year start. It'll be almost impossible to catch up before the end of the century. Of course, if we could obtain examples of their dinosaurs, we could reverse engineer them and make our own, with enough modifications in the DNA to evade their patents."

"Can we obtain examples of their dinosaurs?"

"I believe we can, yes."

Somebody cleared his throat. "There wouldn't be anything illegal about it…"

"Oh no," Dodgson said quickly. "Nothing illegal. I'm talking about a legitimate source of their DNA. A disgruntled employee, or some trash improperly disposed of, something like that."

"Do you have a legitimate source, Dr. Dodgson?"

"I do," Dodgson said. "But I'm afraid there is some urgency to the decision, because InGen is experiencing a small crisis, and my source will have to act within the next twenty-four hours."

A long silence descended over the room.

"I don't see the need for a formal resolution on this," Dodgson said. "Just a sense of the room, as to whether you feel I should proceed…"

Slowly the heads nodded silently.

"Thank you for coming, gentlemen," Dodgson said. "I'll take it from here."

* * *

**San Francisco**

Lewis Dodgson walked into the restaurant and quickly scanned the patrons. His gaze fell on an obese man in one corner, who was shoveling food into his face. Dodgson quickly made his way toward the man's table and sat down.

"Hi," he said.

The obese man eyed Dodgson's suitcase. "It's all in there?" he asked.

"Half," Dodgson cleared up. "Seven-fifty."

"I want to see it," the man said.

Dodgson sighed and pulled the suitcase onto his lap. He snapped the clamps, and opened the lid just an inch. The man peeked inside. He nodded. "Okay. And the rest?"

"It's yours when you get the embryos to the dock," Dodgson said.

"How do I transport them?" the man asked.

Dodgson reached into his bag and pulled out a can of shaving cream. He twisted the bottom of the can. It came open. He twisted the lid back on and handed it to the man. "There's a coolant system installed," he explained. "It'll keep them cold for twenty four hours. After that, they're useless. So I need them before then."

"Don't worry about a thing," the man said, smiling. "I have it all covered. You just make sure your guy is there to pick them up."

"I'll be there personally," Dodgson said. "I'm making sure this is done right. Remember: tomorrow night at the east dock."

"Yeah yeah," the man said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "It'll be a piece of cake."

"You're sure you understand how to-"

"Look, I got it. This isn't my first rodeo." The man chuckled. "And by the way, you might want to lose the hat."

Dodgson stood up. "I'll see you tomorrow night."

* * *

Hammond's private jet came roaring down the runway to meet them. Grant held his hat still to prevent it from blowing away.

They boarded the plane. "Ah, Dr. Grant! Dr. Sattler!" a raspy voice called. It was John Hammond; exuberant, enthusiastic. Hammond quickly shook both their hands. "It's marvelous to see you both. I was concerned for a while that you wouldn't agree to come along."

"Well, we had some free time this weekend, so we thought…"

"Excellent, excellent," Hammond said. "But come, come, sit down, sit down, we're taking off in just a moment."

They took their seats. Gennaro was asleep in his chair. "You'll have to excuse him," Hammond said. "He's been awake for thirty six hours straight."

"That's quite all right," Grant said.

"We have one final stop to make before we head off to Isla Nublar," Hammond said. "Gennaro insisted we bring along one more passenger."

"Who is that?" Ellie asked.

"Ian Malcolm," Hammond sputtered with disdain. "He's a chaotician. Has no business being here if you ask me."

Grant and Ellie shared a look. "I've never met a chaotician before."

"They're a rare species," Hammond said.

* * *

At the Dallas airport, a tall, thin, balding man of thirty-five, dressed entirely in black stepped on the plane.

"Ah, Dr. Malcolm," Hammond said, smiling with forced graciousness.

Malcolm grinned. "Hello, John. Yes, I am afraid your old nemesis is here."

"Ian Malcolm, how do you do?" Malcolm said quickly as he shook hands with everyone. "I do maths." He struck Grant as being more amused by the outing than anything else.

Malcolm sat in one of the padded chairs. The stewardess asked him if he wanted a drink. "Diet Coke, shaken not stirred." He leaned over to Grant and Ellie. "So you two dig up dinosaurs?"

"Try to!" Grant answered.

Malcolm laughed, finding this very amusing, which confused Grant.

"You'll have to get use to Dr. Malcolm!" Hammond said, annoyed. "He suffers from a deplorable excess of personality, especially for a mathematician!

"Chaotician, actually!" Malcolm corrected. "Chaotician! John doesn't subscribe to Chaos, particularly what it has to say about his little science project!"

"Codswollop!" Hammond snorted, no longer even bothering to cover his contempt for Malcolm. "Ian, you've never come close to explaining these concerns of yours about this island!"

"I certainly have! Very clearly! Because of the behavior of the system in phase space!"

Hammond just waved him off. "A load, if I may say so, of fashionable number crunching, that's all it is!"

Malcolm started poking at Hammond's knee. "John, John."

Hammond pushed him away. "Don't do that!"

"Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler - you've heard of Chaos Theory?"

"No," Ellie answered, shaking her head.

"No? Non-linear equations? Strange attractions?"

She shrugged.

"Dr. Sattler, I refuse to believe that you are not familiar with the concept of attraction!"

Humid Dallas air drifted through the open door. "Isn't it a little warm for black?" Ellie asked.

"You're extremely pretty, Dr. Sattler. I could look at your legs all day. But no, as a matter of fact, black is an excellent Color for heat. If you remember your black-body radiation, black is actually best in heat. Efficient radiation. In any case, I wear only two colors, black and gray." Ellie was staring at him, her mouth open. "These colors are appropriate for any occasion and they go well together, should I mistakenly put on a pair of gray socks with my black trousers."

"But don't you find it boring to wear only two colors?"

"Not at all. I find it liberating. I believe my life has value, and I don't want to waste it thinking about clothing. I don't want to think about what I will wear in the morning. Truly, can you imagine anything more boring than fashion? Professional sports, perhaps. Grown men swatting little balls, while the rest of the world pays money to applaud. But, on the whole, I find fashion even more tedious than sports."

"Dr. Malcolm is a man of strong opinions," Hammond explained.

"And mad as a hatter," Malcolm said cheerfully. "But you must admit, these are non trivial issues. We live in a world of frightful givens. It is given that you will behave like this, given that you will care about that. No one thinks about the givens. Isn't it amazing? In the information society, nobody thinks. We expected to banish paper, but we actually banished thought."

Hammond turned to Gennaro, who had awakened when they briefly landed, and raised his hands. "You invited him. I suggested scientists, you suggested a rock star."

"And a lucky thing, too," Malcolm said. "Because it sounds as if you have a serious problem."

"We have no problem," Hammond defended quickly.

"I always maintained this island would be unworkable," Malcolm said. "I predicted it from the beginning." He reached into a soft leather briefcase. "And I trust by now we all know what the eventual outcome is going to be. You're going to have to shut the thing down."

"Shut it down!" Hammond stood angrily. "This is ridiculous."

Malcolm shrugged, indifferent to Hammond's outburst, and started passing around sheets of paper. "I've brought copies of my original paper for you to took at. The original consultancy paper I did for InGen. The mathematics are a bit sticky, but I can walk you through it. Are you leaving now?"

"I have some phone calls to make," Hammond excused himself and he went into the adjoining cabin.

"Well, it's a long flight," Malcolm said to the others, smiling. "At least my paper will give you something to do."

* * *

**Some hours later...**

Grant looked out his window at the clear blue sky. On the horizon, the sky merged with the ocean and became one. This had been the view for the last several hours. Grant looked around the cabin. Gennaro was asleep again; Ellie was reading a book; Malcolm was flipping through the pages of his report, or whatever.

"Ah!" John Hammond said suddenly. He turned, a bright smile on his face. "There it is!"

Grant looked forward. A pillar of landmass protruded from the ocean. The island was shrouded in a dense layer of fog, giving it an ominous vibe.

"Wait a minute," Malcolm said. "Alcatraz? I thought we were going to Isla Nublar."

Hammond snorted and shook his head at the man's snarky comment.

The island grew in size. A blanket of fog appeared in front of them. They entered the cloud, and suddenly all visibility was gone. Grant watched the pilot nervously.

"There's bad wind shears," Hammond warned. "This part can be a little rough…"

The chopper suddenly bounced like a rollercoaster ride. Grant gripped the arms of his seat. The chopper bounced several more times, each time heightening the tension. Suddenly, a tree loomed in front of them, and the pilot swerved sharply to avoid it. Ellie swore.

Another tree in front of them, the pilot avoided it like before. Then they set down. Relief flooded through Grant and he let out a sigh.

Hammond was on his feet, cane in hand, smile on his face. "Come along, come along!" he urged his guests.

Everyone got up and left. Grant found himself standing on the helipad, surrounded by fog. He couldn't see more than a foot in front of him.

"Oh," Hammond said, disappointment in his voice. "I was hoping it'd be clear today."

"Alan?" Ellie said.

"I'm over here," Grant said. He saw her silhouette in the fog.

Grant heard footsteps and turned to see someone emerging from the fog. It was a young red-haired man with a baseball cap on. He smiled. "Mr. Hammond, guests. Welcome to Jurassic Park! I'm Ed Regis. Everyone follow me, please."

"Jurassic Park?" Ellie repeated.

"Yes, yes," Hammond said, jovially, and started brushing them along.

They came to a gate. To the right of the gate, a sign that said 'Welcome to Jurassic Park.' Grant turned his attention to the gate. It was thirty feet high and looked electrified.

Ed Regis swiped a card through the slot. There was a beep. Then he reached and pushed open the gate, swinging it wide. He waved them through. Then he fell back with Hammond and whispered: "Have you told-"

"Shh, shh," Hammond shushed him. "Let them see for themselves."

Grant found himself in front of the group, walking down a winding path through the jungle. The fog gradually cleared up, enough that he could see again. A tree loomed up in front of him. The trunk had interesting texture. Grant reached out to touch it. It was warm on his hand. Realization dawned on him: this wasn't a tree; this was skin! He jumped away from it. The thing he thought was a tree was actually a leg. A huge leg. It went up and up. It was connected to a gargantuan body. And higher yet, a towering neck, upon which sat a tiny head that fed upon the treetops.

Grant put a hand on his mouth. Tears began to streak down his cheeks. He couldn't stop looking at it: a dinosaur. A living breathing dinosaur. It had to be.

A brief moment where he lost awareness. When he came to, he was lying on the ground.

Hammond looking down on him, concerned. "Dr. Grant, are you alright?" Ed Regis asked.

"Yeah," Grant said airily.

"You fainted," Regis said as he helped Grant up. Grant thought for a moment that he might have dreamed it. But when he looked up, there it was, grazing on the treetops.

He looked at the others. Gennaro had a big stupid grin on his face. Ellie was blinking repeatedly as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Malcolm was still as a statue as he gazed up at the creature, wonderment on his face. "That's pretty… fantastic," he breathed.

The massive dinosaur didn't seem to have noticed them. It went on eating like it was the only thing in the world.

"How?" Grant whispered.

Hammond grabbed his shoulder. He was beaming. "I'll show you."

* * *

The group moved into a green tunnel of overarching palms leading toward the main visitor building. Everywhere, extensive and elaborate planting emphasized the feeling that they were entering a new world, a prehistoric tropical world, and leaving the normal world behind.

"They look pretty good," Ellie said to Grant.

"Yes," Grant said. "I want to see them up close. I want to lift up their toe pads and inspect their claws and feel their skin and open their laws and have a look at their teeth. Until then I don't know for sure. But yes, they look good."

"I suppose it changes your field a bit," Malcolm commented.

Grant shook his head. "It changes everything."

"You don't seem upset."

"It's been discussed, in the field. Many people imagined it was coming. But not so soon."

"Story of our species," Malcolm said, laughing. "Everybody knows it's coming, but not so soon."

Even though they could no longer see the dinosaurs, but they could hear them, trumpeting softly in the distance.

"So what are you thinking?" Ellie asked

"We're out of job."

"Don't you mean extinct?" Malcolm popped in.

"My only question is, where'd they get the DNA?"

"You can't reproduce a real dinosaur, because you can't get real dinosaur DNA," Ellie agreed.

"Unless there's a way we haven't thought of," Grant said.

"Like what?" she said.

"I don't know," Grant admitted.

Beyond a fence, they came to the swimming pool, which spilled over into a series of waterfalls and smaller rocky pools. The area was planted with huge ferns. "Isn't this extraordinary?" Ed Regis asked. "Especially on a misty day, these plants really contribute to the prehistoric atmosphere. These are authentic Jurassic ferns, of course. If you look up ahead, you'll see our Safari Lodge." They saw a dramatic, low building, with a series of glass pyramids on the roof. "That's where you'll all be staying here in Jurassic Park."

* * *

Grant and Ellie's suite was done in beige tones, the rattan furniture in green jungle-print motifs. There was a television set in the corner, with a card on top:

Channel 2: Hypsilophodont Highlands  
Channel 3: Triceratops Territory  
Channel 4: Sauropod Swamp  
Channel 5: Carnivore Country  
Channel 6: Stegosaurus South  
Channel 7: Velociraptor Valley  
Channel 8: Pterosaur Peak

He found the names irritatingly cute.

"By the way, those ferns are poison," Ellie told him. "But did you notice anything about these rooms, Alan?"

Grant moved around the room. "The windows are small and the glass is tempered, set in a steel frame. The doors are steel-clad. That shouldn't be necessary. And did you see the fence when we came in?"

Ellie nodded. The entire lodge was enclosed within a fence, with bars of inch-thick steel. The fence was gracefully landscaped and painted flat black to resemble wrought iron, but no cosmetic effort could disguise the thickness of the metal, or its twelve-foot height.

"It looks to me like they've turned this place into a fortress."

Grant looked at his watch. "We'll be sure to ask why. The tour starts in twenty minutes."

* * *

Hammond lead his guests toward the visitor center, talking as he goes.

"You four are going to have a little company out in the park," he explained. "Spend a little time with our target audience."

Grant heard the sound of a speeding jeep and he turned.

Racing toward them was a red jeep. Regis was at the steering wheel. Two kids bounced happily around in the open jeep. The jeep stopped. The boy, was about nine years old and his sister looked around twelve.

"Grandpa!"

Hammond looked up, delighted. Arms open. Gennaro pulled him close.

"John, this is a serious investigation of the island, not a weekend excursion or a social outing. We're talking about the safety of this place!"

Hammond waved to the children. "I'm aware of that. But I built this place for children. You can't investigate it without their reactions. They're what this place is all about."

Hammond beamed to Grant and Ellie and indicated the running kids.

"My grandchildren," he explained. "Genetics were kind."

The kids raced into Hammond's arms, knocking him over. Hammond shined. Gennaro held in his fury.

"We missed you," the girl said.

"Thanks for the presents," the boy added.

"We loved them," the girl agreed.

"You must be careful with me," Hammond laughed. "Did you like the helicopter?

"It was great!" the boy said excitedly. "It drops, we were dropping!"

* * *

The group entered the lobby of the visitor center, which displayed the skeleton of a tyrannosaurus attacking an Alamosaurus.

"-the most advanced amusement park in the world, incorporating all the latest technologies," Hammond was explaining. "And I'm not talking just about rides, you know. Everybody has rides. No, we've made living, biological attractions so astounding, that they'll capture the imagination of the entire planet! Now, I'm sure you're all wondering just how we created our dinosaurs."

"I was wondering that," Grant said.

"Well, follow me. There's someone I'd like to introduce you to: Doctor Wu. He's the head geneticist, and played his part in making Jurassic Park feasible."

The old man led them down a corridor to the genetics room. He swiped a card through the slot, and the door slid open. They went into the room. Men and women in white lab coats looked through microscopes and jogged notes down on clipboards. One Asian-American man with a clipboard tucked under his arm, walked toward them.

"Hi," he said, smiling. "I'm Henry Wu, nice to meet you all. So, what do you think of the dinosaurs?"

"They're incredible," Grant said.

"I was hoping you'd think so, Dr. Grant," Wu said. "Now, I'm sure you're all dying to know just how we made them."

"Yes."

"It's not as outlandish as it seems. First, do any of you know what amber is?"

"Yes, it's fossilized tree resin."

"Exactly." Wu crossed the room to a table and picked up a honey-colored stone. He held it in the light. "This here is the key to cloning living, breathing dinosaurs."

They waited for him to continue.

"Sometimes, insects get trapped in tree sap. The tree sap hardens and becomes fossilized; becoming what we know as amber. Some of those insects that got stuck are mosquitoes. Mosquitoes, as everyone knows, suck the blood of other animals. Today, they suck our blood. But a hundred and fifty million years ago, they preyed upon a very different type of animal."

There was a breathless pause. "You mean…" Grant started to say.

Henry Wu smiled. "That's right. Mosquitoes sucked the blood of dinosaurs, and then became trapped in tree sap. The tree sap fossilized, becoming amber. And there you go. Access to a hundred and fifty million year old dinosaur DNA."

"That just might work," Ellie said. Grant laughed. Malcolm nodded.

"Oh, I assure you doctor Sattler, it does work," Wu said. "As you have seen for yourselves. But the DNA we extract from the fossilized mosquitoes is rarely, if ever, the complete strand. So we needed a substitute to finish the strand. We selected amphibians for a number of reasons that I'll explain later. By combining the DNA of frogs with the fossilized dinosaur DNA, we were able to reconstruct a usable strand. And there you have it. Dinosaur DNA."

Heads nodded. Grant scratched his chin thoughtfully. "That's really quite clever."

"Thank you," Wu said. "I thought so too. Now, if you'll all come with me, we'll have a look at the hatchery where we keep the eggs."

They went through a door and entered another room. This one had a low mist throughout the room. Scientists walked around, waist-deep in the mist.

"We have to keep this room humid," Wu explained. "But if any of you start to feel lightheaded, let me know."

He led them to a table. There was a tray containing straw and four oblong circles. As the humans crowded around to look, one of the circles gave a little shake.

Ellie gasped and grabbed Grant's arm.

"Oh, wonderful!" Wu said. "I was hoping for this."

"Move out of my way!" Hammond barked to a scientist who was unintentionally blocking his view. "I insist on being here when they are born. I've been present for the birth of every little creature on this island, so far!"

"Surely not the ones that are bred in the wild though," Malcolm said.

"Oh, no, there's no question about that: they can't breed in the wild," Wu said. "Population control is one of our security measures. There is no unauthorized breeding in Jurassic Park."

"Huh," Malcolm said, scratching his chin.

The little egg shook again. Grant, Ellie, Gennaro, Hammond and the kids leaned in closer.

"Well, again, how do you know they can't breed?" Malcolm asked, looking at Wu.

Wu smiled. "Well, because all the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park are female. We engineered them that way."

"Engineered?" Ellie repeated.

Wu nodded.

The egg gave a final little shudder, and then a crack appeared in its surface. The crack grew larger and larger, until a little three-clawed hand poked its way to the surface.

"Look at it!" Tim whispered. "It's so small!"

The creature inside strained to break out of her confines, screeching shrilly all the while. Hammond put on a pair of gloves, and began to gently remove pieces of eggshell, revealing more and more of the baby underneath. The dinosaur was covered in red membrane, which stretched as she moved around. The baby screeched.

Malcolm paced around the table. "And, how do you know they're all female?" he asked. "Does someone go out in the park and, uh… pull up the dinosaurs skirts?"

"We control their chromosomes, it's really not that difficult," Wu explained. "All vertebrate embryos are inherently female, anyway. They just require the right hormone given at the right developmental stage to make the male. We simply deny them that."

Malcolm rubbed his eyes. "Ah, I was afraid of this…"

"Sorry?" Wu said, perking an eyebrow. "Afraid of what?"

"This… this misplaced idea that you can control nature," Malcolm said.

"Well…"

"Listen," Malcolm said. "Life can't be contained; life breaks free. It, expands new territories, crashes through barriers. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But, uh... well, there it is."

"There it is," Hammond agreed. He looked unhappy with Malcolm's statements.

"You're implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will… breed?" Wu asked.

"No, no," Malcolm soothed. "I'm simply saying that life finds a way. That's all."

"Indeed, you are correct," Wu said.

Grant picked up the newborn and held it in his gloved hands. He examined the skin, the claws, gently opening her jaws to have a look at its teeth. Razor sharp teeth, and she wasn't even a day old. Suddenly, he thought of something. He looked up at Wu. "What species is this?" he asked.

Wu seemed distracted. He looked at Grant. "Oh, it's a Velociraptor."

"You… you bred raptors?" Grant asked, aghast.

"Yes, we did," Wu said. "Is something wrong?"

Grant looked down at the tiny critter in his hands, finding it hard to believe that in just a few short years, this baby would become the most deadly creature to have ever walked the planet.

* * *

The group detoured to an enclosure that was a walled in area made of concrete. It had an observation tower and a platform around the walls. Snarling could be heard in the dense plants within the enclosure. A crane was lifting a black steer up into the air.

"What are they doing?" Grant asked.

"Feeding them," Hammond explained.

Grant and Ellie walked up onto the platform to watch, with the others following. The steer was slowly lowered into the enclosure where it disappeared into the foliage. Suddenly, shrieking could be heard as some unknown creatures attacked the steer. Ripping and crunching, along with the terrified cries of the steer could be heard as the plants violently shook from the attack. The attack ended as quickly as it had started.

"Fascinating animals, fascinating," Hammond commented.

"Oh my God," Ellie gasped.

"Give time, they'll out draw the T-Rex," Hammond told them. "Guarantee it."

"I want to see them," Grant said. "Can we get closer?"

Ellie put a hand on his arm, like calming an over excited child.

"Alan, these aren't bones anymore."

"We're still perfecting a viewing system," Hammond admitted. "The raptors seem to be a bit resistant to integration into a park setting."

"They should all be destroyed," a voice said.

A man dressed in a safari outfit with a slouch hat came onto the platform.

"Robert Muldoon, my game warden from Kenya," Hammond introduced. "Bit of an alarmist, but knows more about raptors than anyone."

Grant shook hands with Muldoon. "What kind of metabolism do they have?" he asked. "What's their growth rate?"

"They're lethal at eight months, and I do mean lethal," Muldoon replied. "I've hunted most things that can hunt you, but the way these things move-"

"Fast for a biped?"

"Cheetah speed. Fifty, sixty miles per hour if they ever got out in the open. And they're astonishing jumpers."

"Yes, yes, yes, yes," Hammond dismissed. "That's why we are taking extreme precautions. Their viewing area below us will have eight-inch tempered glass set in reinforced steel frames to-"

"Do they show intelligence?" Grant asked, interrupting Hammond. "With their brain cavities, I assumed that-"

"They're extremely intelligent," Muldoon responded. "Even problem-solving intelligence; especially the Big One. That one, when she looks at you, you can see she's working things out. That's why we have to feed them like this. She had them all attacking the fences when the feeders came."

"But the fences are electrified, though, right?" Ellie asked.

"That's right, but they never attack the same place twice. They were testing the fences for weaknesses systematically. They remember."

Suddenly, the crane emerged out of the enclosure. The leather harness that was holding the steer was in shreds.

Ellie tapped Grant on the shoulder, and pointed.

Amid the ferns, Grant saw the head of an animal. It was motionless, partially hidden in the fronds, the two large dark eyes watching them coldly.

The head was two feet long. From a pointed snout, a long row of teeth ran back to the hole of the auditory meatus which served as an ear. The head reminded him of a large lizard, or perhaps a crocodile. The eyes did not blink, and the animal did not move. Its skin was leathery, with a pebbled texture, and basically the same coloration as the infant's.

As Grant watched, a single forelimb reached up very slowly to part the ferns beside the animal's face. The limb, Grant saw, was strongly muscled. The hand had three grasping fingers, each ending in curved claws. The band gently, slowly, pushed aside the ferns.

The attack came suddenly, from the left and right. Charging raptors covered the ten yards to the fence with shocking speed. Grant had a blurred impression of powerful, six-foot-tall bodies, stiff balancing tails, limbs with curving claws, open jaws with rows of jagged teeth.

The animals snarled as they came forward, and then leaped bodily into the air, raising their hind legs with their big dagger-claws. Then they struck the fence in front of them, throwing off twin bursts of hot sparks.

The Velociraptors fell backward to the ground, hissing. The visitors all moved forward, fascinated. Only then did the third animal attack, leaping up to strike the fence at chest level. Tim screamed in fright as the sparks exploded all around him. The creatures snarled, a low reptilian hissing sound, and leaptedback among the ferns. Then they were gone, leaving behind a faint odor of decay, and banging acrid smoke.

"Holy shit," Tim swore.

"It was so fast," Ellie said.

"Pack hunters," Grant said, shaking his head. "Pack hunters for whom ambush is an instinct… Fascinating."

On the other side of the fence, they heard snorting in the palm trees. Several heads poked slowly out of the foliage. The animals watched them. Staring coldly.

* * *

"This way, everybody, this way," Ed Regis said. By his side, a woman was passing out pith helmets with 'Jurassic Park' labeled on the headband, and a little blue dinosaur logo.

A line of Toyota Land Cruisers came out of an underground garage beneath the visitor center. Each car pulled up, driverless and silent. Two black men in safari uniforms were opening the doors for passengers.

"Two to four passengers to a car, please, two to four passengers to a car," a recorded voice was saying. "Children under ten must be accompanied by an adult. Two to four passengers to a car, please…"

"Where are the brakes?" Gennaro asked.

"Brakes?" Regis shook his head. "No. No brakes. They're electric cars, guided by this track in the roadway, and top of the line!"

Tim watched as Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm got into the first Land Cruiser with Gennaro. "Can I go with them?"

"I'm afraid they have things to discuss," Regis answered. "Technical things."

"I'm interested in technical things," Tim insisted. "I'd rather go with them."

"Well, you'll be able to hear what they're saying," Regis explained. "We'll have a radio open between the cars."

The second car came. Tim and Lex got in, and Regis followed. Mounted in the dashboard were two computer screens and a box that looked like a…

"It's an interactive CD-ROM," Lex identified. "You just touch the right part of the screen and it talks about whatever you want."

Regis pressed the intercom button. "In keeping with the non polluting policies of Jurassic Park, these lightweight electric Land Cruisers have been specially built for us by Toyota in Osaka. Eventually we hope to drive among the animals-just as they do in African game parks-but, for now, sit back and enjoy the self-guided tour."

* * *

Robert Muldoon enters the Jurassic Park control room, Hammond right behind him. They go straight to the main console, where John "Ray" Arnold, a chronic worrier and chain-smoker, is seated.

"National Weather Service is tracking a tropical storm about seventy-five miles west of us," Muldoon explained.

Hammond sighed and looked over Arnold's shoulder. "Why didn't I build in Orlando?"

"I'll keep an eye on it," Muldoon told him. "Maybe it'll swing south like the last one.

Hammond took a deep breath. "Ray, start the tour program."

Ray punched a button on the console.

"Hold onto your butts."

* * *

**And of the first of seven iterations. The rest of the story will be coming soon, so you won't have to wait too long if you want to see more. Like I said, this isn't a perfect fic. But it is a fun passion project. Writing it was quite an experience and I am proud to finally be sharing it with others. Until next time! ;)**


	2. Second Iteration

**Welcome back! You don't have to worry too much about long waits behind chapters, since I already have everything written and just needed to edit them for readers. Before we begin Iteration Two, a big thank to the following...**

**Blacksmith Omniverse**

**Phenomenal Ultra Instinct**

**Zaconator and Zackis**

**ultimate-drax**

**Thank you for following, favoriting, and/or reviewing the first chapter! I am always free for a discussion in PM if you have any feedback or questions. But enough delay, onto the good stuff!**

* * *

**Second Iteration**

"_With subsequent drawings of the fractal curve, sudden changes may appear."_

-IAN MALCOLM

The Land Cruisers began to rumble forward. Tim pressed his face against the window eagerly. It was like they were entering another world!

He looked forward, and saw in the distance an enormous wooden gate. The sides of the gate were painted black; meeting at the top, it formed an arch, which had words 'Jurassic Park' painted on.

The huge doors swung open and the Land Cruisers passed through them.

Tim grinned. "Lex, did you see that?"

"Yep," Lex said. She was still pressing buttons on the CD-ROM, not really paying attention.

A voice came on the intercom. "Welcome to a world in which only a small percentage of human beings have ever witnessed," the voice said. "I'm Richard Kiley, and I'll be your tour guide today."

The cars moved through the jungle. "If you look to your right," Richard Kiley's voice said, "you may catch a glimpse of the first dinosaurs on our tour: Dilophosaurus. For this exhibit, I would like to ask you to please keep your windows rolled up."

"Just a precaution," Regis said rigidly. Tim glanced at the man, and saw that he had his thumb on the intercom; he was talking to the people in the other car, too.

Dilophosaurus! Tim peered out his window, desperate to see them. "What's a Dilophosaurus?" Lex asked him.

"Shh!" he said. "Just look."

The cars moved slowly past. Tim stared into the foliage. Where were they? He couldn't see them anywhere. Maybe they were hiding.

"Dilophosaurus are rather skittish creatures," Richard Kiley said. "They prefer to hide during the day. At night, that is when the show really begins. We now know that Dilophosaurus is actually poisonous, spitting their venom at their prey. Their venom contains a number of harmful toxins that paralyze the victim, allowing the carnivore to eat at their leisure. All this makes Dilophosaurus a beautiful yet deadly addition to the animals you'll see here at Jurassic Park."

Tim looked but he still didn't see the creatures. He sat back in his chair, disappointed.

"Next, we'll have a look at some graceful herbivores," Richard Kiley said.

The cars rumbled on through the park.

"I'm sure you all noticed," Malcolm said, in the other car, "that the man told us to keep our windows rolled up."

"Yes," Gennaro said.

"Because the animals can spit."

"Yes," Gennaro said again. He sounded worried.

"Would they spit at the cars, though?" Ellie asked.

"They must think so," Malcolm said. "And that's why they told us to keep our windows up."

* * *

In the control room, Hammond scowled. There he went again, that Malcolm, ruining what was supposed to be a fantastic moment, an awesome moment. It was in his nature, it was, to be naturally opposed to anything and everything Hammond did.

"I told you we should have taken that part of the recording out," Muldoon said from where he was leaning on the wall.

"Yes," Hammond said. "It's going to frighten the guests. Arnold, will you take care of it?"

Arnold puffed on his cigarette. "No," he said.

"No?" Hammond repeated, angered.

"Yes, no," Arnold confirmed. "The dilos can spit up to thirty feet. All it would take is for some moron to stick his head out the window."

"But Wu said they won't spit at the cars," Hammond protested. "They prefer to eat small creatures; mice and what have you."

"Wu's been wrong before. And I'm not taking a risk when it comes to visitor safety."

There was a pause. "Fine."

"I'm doing it for you," Arnold said.

Hammond just grunted.

* * *

"Continuing on our prehistoric safari, we come next to the herbivores of the ornithischian group. If you look to your right, you can probably see them now."

Tim saw two animals standing motionless in the shade of a large tree. Triceratops: the size and gray color of an elephant, with the truculent stance of a rhino. The horns above each eye curved five feet into the air, looking almost like inverted elephant tusks. A third, rhino-like born was located near the nose. And they had the beaky snout of a rhino.

"Unlike other dinosaurs, Triceratops horridus can't see well. They're nearsighted, like the rhinos of today, and they tend to be surprised by moving objects. They'd charge our car if they were close enough to see it! But relax, folks, we're safe enough here. Triceratops have a fan-shaped crest behind their heads. It's made of solid bone, and it's very strong. These animals weigh about seven tons each. Despite their appearance, they are actually quite docile. They know their handlers, and they'll allow themselves to be petted. They particularly like to be scratched in the hindquarters."

The Land Cruiser rumbled forward.

* * *

Gerry Harding, the chief veterinarian of Jurassic Park, was looking over a stream surrounded by jungle. At his side was his youngest daughter Jess.

"Yeah, it's a great view, but where are the dinosaurs?" Jess asked.

"There should be Triceratops out there." Gerry said. "Sometimes they're kind of hard to spot…"

"Oh yeah?" Jess pulled a pair of binoculars out of her pocket and looked out at the jungle.

"Where'd you get those?" Gerry asked.

"Uh, these?" Jess motioned the binoculars.

"Yeah, those."

"That guy gave them to me," Jess explained. "Your boss, John Hammer, or whatever. He likes me."

"That was… generous of him." Gerry was not completely sure Jess was being truthful.

"I see jungle and stuff, but no dinos," Jess said, again looking out with the binoculars.

"Just look around, you'll find them."

Jess lowered the binoculars and looked at her father. "Can we go down there and see the dinos up close?"

"When I worked in San Diego, did I let you into the tiger enclosure?"

"That was different," Jess defended. "Besides, I was only seven!"

"Right. And you scared the daylights out of me!"

Jess looked down towards a red and grey car parked on a road.

"There's a car down there," she told her father.

"Must be Hammond's visitors," Gerry explained. "He's got some hotshot paleontologists here to see the park."

"I bet they get to see some dinos up close," Jess grumbled. A Triceratops emerged from the bushes.

"Okay, I see one! Wait… there's a bunch of them. Oh awesome, they're fighting! I wanted to see this!"

"Well, actually it's more of a dominance display than a fight," Gerry corrected.

The larger Triceratops and a smaller Triceratops charged, ramming their horns against each other.

"You remember how Patchie was when your mom got that new puppy?" Gerry asked. "Lady Margaret's like that with the younger Triceratops."

"Seriously?" Jess asked incredulously. "Lady Margaret?"

"Yep, that's what we call the alpha. See those horns? They're more than three feet long."

"Good for fighting T-Rex, right?" Jess asked. "When do we get to see that?"

"That's not going to happen," Gerry said. "I'm busy enough without holding gladiator fights. Which reminds me… remember I said I've got a sick Stegosaurus to check on? We should get going. The boat leaves tonight, remember?"

"But I practically just got here," Jess complained as she walked towards the car.

"Well at least you got to see Triceratops fight," Gerry pointed out.

"Actually, it was more like a dominance display."

"Smartass," Gerry said, smiling. "Come on, let's go." The two got into the jeep. "Let's hope for clear skies. No fun on that boat when the waves are rough."

* * *

The ground slowly rose up. For a moment, the road ahead was hidden from the passengers in the cars. Until they cleared the hill, and the valley opened up before them. Grant peered out his window as Richard Kiley's voice interluded: "Now we're coming to the Stegosaurus pen. Stegosaurus needs no introduction: it is one of the most famous dinosaurs known to man. What you might not know, though, is that those plates on their backs are used to regulate the animal's body temperature, rather than for self defense."

"Who's that?" Ellie asked.

Grant looked out her window. There was a jeep parked in the stegosaur area. A man and a teenage girl were standing near a stegosaur, which was lying on her side.

The intercom clicked, and Regis said, "That there is Gerry Harding, and I think that's his kid. Gerry's the vet. Looks like he's checking up on the stegos."

"Is the stego dead?" Malcolm asked.

"No," Regis said. "Look at her breathing. She might be sick, though."

Grant's fascination overtook him, and he opened his door and stepped out. Ellie was right behind him, and after a moment, Malcolm and Gennaro too. Gennaro was displeased.

"Don't you think we should…" he started to say.

"Shh," Grant said.

He, Ellie and Malcolm ran ahead to the stegosaur. The vet, Harding, turned toward them. "Oh hi," he said. He seemed a little surprised to see them out of the car.

Grant looked at the fallen stego. "What's the problem here?" he asked.

"Oh, she's just a little sick," Harding said. "It happens every few months. All of them come down. We haven't figured out yet what's causing it."

Grant knelt in the dirt. After a moment of hesitation, he reached out, and placed his palm on the animal's leathery hide. He smiled at Ellie. Ellie quickly reached out and touched it as well.

"Oh sure go ahead," Harding muttered.

"You're sure this is safe?" Gennaro asked nervously.

"Oh yeah, should be perfectly fine," Harding said. "She's too sick to care anyway."

Ellie was opening the stego's jaws.

"Doctor Sattler…" Gennaro started to say.

"Alan, take a look at this," Ellie said.

Grant crouched toward her. He peered into the animal's open mouth. "What?" he asked.

"The tongue's blistered," she explained. She squeezed one of the blisters with her nails, causing it to pop. "Hmm. Does anyone have a flashlight?"

Harding reached into his pocket and pulled one out, and handed it to her. She turned it one and shone the light in the animal's eyes. "Dilated," she said. "Very interesting…"

Meanwhile, Malcolm was investigating the surrounding area. He turned when he heard Gennaro walking up. "I don't like this," the man said.

"Relax," Malcolm laughed. "It's just a vacation, right?"

Gennaro scowled at him. "You know, you haven't exactly been a great help so far."

"Oh?" Malcolm said. Something had caught his eye; he knelt down to look closer.

"Yeah," Gennaro said. "I'm here trying to conduct a proper investigation, and the best you can do is play mind games…"

"Mind games, indeed," Malcolm said. He'd found a piece of white… something. A little eggshell it looked like. He turned the object over in his hand, examined it, ran his finger along it.

"Better get Grant over here quick," he said.

* * *

"Absolutely absurd," Hammond said in the control room, listening to the report over the radio. "It must be a bird egg. That's all it can be. We have literally dozens of species on the island."

"The shell is almost flat," Grant explained over the radio. "That's from a very big egg. And notice the thickness of the shell. Unless you have ostriches on this island, it's a dinosaur egg. What gives it away is the patterning on the interior surface, the interior curve. Turn it over and you will notice a faint pattern of raised lines, making roughly triangular shapes. I've dug out two eggs with patterns like that at my site in Montana."

"Can you tell the species?" Malcolm asked, making himself heard.

"Yes," Grant answered grimly. "It's a Velociraptor egg."

"Christ," Muldoon swore. "There are raptors free in the park."

"But they can't possibly breed," Hammond insisted. "All the animals are female."

"Amphibian DNA," Grant realized.

"What?"

"Well, on the tour Doctor Wu said they used frog DNA to fill in the gene sequence gaps. They mutated the dinosaur's genetic code and blended it with that of frogs. Now, some West African frogs have been known to spontaneously change sex from male to female, in a single sex environment. Ian, you were right!"

"Life found a way…" Malcolm agreed.

Furious, Hammond stormed out.

* * *

Thunder rumbles as the storm overhead is about to bust loose. The group starts heading back to their vehicles. Except for Ellie.

"Oh, you know, if it's alright, I'd like to stay with Dr. Harding and finish with the Stegosaurus. Is that okay?"

Harding nodded. "Sure. I've got a gas powered jeep. I can drop her at the visitor's center before I take my daughter to catch the boat."

"I'll catch up with you," Ellie told Grant. "You can go with the others."

"Are you sure?"

"I just want to finish."

"I think I'll stay too and go back with Harding in his Jeep with Dr. Sattler," Gennaro decided.

"Fine," Grant nodded. "Let's go."

They started walking. "Why exactly is our lawyer staying?" Malcolm asked.

Grant shrugged. "I think it might have something to do with Ellie."

"Really? The shorts, you think?"

"It's happened before."

Grant got in the second car with Malcolm. He looked through the windshield and saw the first Cruiser starting up. He turned his attention to Malcolm as the cars began to drive. "That eggshell was a disturbing find," he said.

Malcolm nodded gravely. "Indeed. I'm glad you're not so awestruck that you can't seen the legitimate dangers of this place."

"I've always been conscious of the dangers," Grant said. "I'm just not as focal about it as you are."

Malcolm smiled. "Well. hopefully I'm wrong and everything will be fine. But I'm rarely ever wrong."

* * *

In the control room, Arnold and Wu were still arguing.

"It can't be a dinosaur egg," Wu said for the fourth or fifth time. "The dinosaurs are all female."

"Regardless of that, they've found an eggshell that can only belong to a dinosaur," Arnold said.

"There must be some other explanation. Perhaps there's an undiscovered species of large bird on the island."

"Yes," Hammond said, pointing at the scientist. "That has to be it. It's the only logical explanation."

"But you heard Grant…"

"What does Grant know?" Wu snapped. "I mean, he's a smart man and all - but he's been on this island for what, a few hours? And I created these animals. Me. Believe me when I say the dinosaurs cannot breed."

Meanwhile, Muldoon was watching the approaching storm nervously. "How long before those cars get back here?" he asked.

"Should be about fifteen minutes."

Muldoon rubbed his chin. "I don't like this. Raptors on the loose, those people out there all alone…"

"They'll be fine," Hammond said. "The Cruisers are durable. Besides, we don't even know if there are loose raptors out there."

"Mmm," Muldoon said. He turned and went out of the room. He went down a staircase that led to the garage. There was a door on the far wall. He unlocked it and reached inside. The closet was full of weapons. He took one of the shoulder-mounted rocket launchers and carried it back to the jeep. He put it inside the jeep and then threw a cloth over it.

Upstairs, Dennis Nedry glanced around. "Well," he said, "looks like the tour program went off without a hitch."

"Yes. Thank you, Dennis," Arnold said.

Dennis grinned at Hammond. "Looks like I'm not the waste of space you thought, eh?"

Hammond glared at him. "Get back to work."

Nedry turned back to his consoles.

Arnold looked over at Hammond. "You can't deny we wouldn't have got the program up and running without him," he said.

Hammond sighed. "Yes, I know, but why does he have to be so infuriatingly annoying?"

"Just ignore him," Arnold said.

* * *

Gerry Harding looked up at the amassing thunderclouds. "It's about to pour," he said. He looked down at Sattler. "Just about done there?"

Ellie brushed the dust off her hands and stood. "Yeah. I still don't know what's making her sick, but maybe with a bit more research…"

A belt of thunder rumbled in the distance. Gennaro looked at Harding. "It's time to go." Harding nodded. "Jess?" he turned around. "Jess!"

"I'm right here dad," Jess called. Her head poked out from behind the stegosaur. "Relax."

"Sorry," he said. He turned to Ellie and Gennaro. "Alright, let's get out of here."

Harding got behind the wheel in the jeep. Jess sat next to him. Gennaro and Ellie got in the back. Harding started up the car. There was a flash of lightning that illuminated parts of the jungle that had previously been shrouded in darkness. Harding spotted something running past - a dark green shape. It was brief, just a glimpse.

"Woah!" he said.

"What?"

"I saw it too!" Jess exclaimed.

"Saw what?" Gennaro asked.

"A dinosaur," Harding said. "Right over there. Just ran past."

"What kind of dinosaur?" Gennaro said, worried.

"I… I'm not sure. It was small, about ten feet long."

"Could it have been a raptor?" Ellie asked.

"It… maybe," Harding said. "More likely thought that it's just a othy. They're always escaping their paddocks."

"Are they dangerous?" Gennaro wanted to know.

"No, they're herbivores."

"Let's hope that's what it was, and not a raptor."

Harding started up the jeep and they began the trip back. "We'll be following the Land Cruisers," Harding said. "It's the fastest way back, that road."

They sped off into the gathering darkness.

* * *

Back in the control room Dennis Nedry stood up, shaking in his shoes, but trying like hell to be casual.

"Anybody want a Coke or something?" he asked. "I'm going up to the machine. I thought, you know, maybe I'd get somebody something. I've had only sweets, and I think I'm gonna get something salty. I thought maybe somebody would, uh…"

Hammond and Arnold shook their heads. Nedry started to leave, then turned back with an afterthought that is so rehearsed its almost obvious.

"Oh, I finished debugging the phones, but the system's compiling for eighteen minutes, or twenty. So, some minor systems may go on and off for a while. There's nothing to worry about. Simple thing…"

"Okay, okay, okay, okay, that's enough!" Hammond snapped. "Ahh!"

Nedry turned, stretched one finger out to his screen, and selected an option: 'Execute.'

He then quickly gathered his things, including a can of shaving cream...

"Don't touch my console, okay?"

The door closed.

"What a slob," Hammond scoffed.

"Yeah," Arnold agreed. "But I guess he knows what he's doing."

* * *

Rain fell in drenching sheets on the roofs and hoods of the Explorers, which were making their way slowly back to the visitor's center.

Grant stared out the window, lost in his thoughts.

"You got any kids?" he asked Malcolm

"Me?" Malcolm smiled, glowing. "Oh, hell yes. Three. I love them. I love kids. Anything at all can and does happen."

He took a flask from a jacket pocket and unscrews the top. His expression darkened.

"Same with wives, for that matter," he added.

"You're married?"

"Occasionally. Always on the lookout for the future ex-Mrs. Malcolm."

* * *

Gerry stopped the car. The road ahead was blocked by a huge, fallen tree. He tried lifting it, but it didn't budge.

"We'll have to go back and take the maintenance road into the park," he told the others, who were waiting back in the car. "It'll take a little longer, but think of it as the scenic route."

"Will we still make the boat?" Jess asked.

Gerry shook his head as he got back in the car. "I don't think so. This storm looks like it's only going to get worse. My weather prediction was completely off. Seems like you might get your wish, Jess."

Jess smiled, glad that her stay in Jurassic Park might last a little longer.

* * *

Arnold noticed that the alarm systems in the Visitor's Center were shutting down, as noted by the red blinking bulbs.

"That's odd."

"What?" Hammond asked.

"Door security systems are down."

"Well Nedry said a few systems would go down, didn't he?"

* * *

Grant and Malcolm didn't notice the video screen in the middle of their front console suddenly going black.

"By the way, Dr. Sattler," Malcolm continued. "She's not like, uh, available, is she?"

"Why?"

"Why? Oh, I'm sorry. Are you two, uh-"

"Yeah."

"Oh. Well, I wish you the best luck."

The cars jerked to a stop. The lights in the vehicles and along the road went out, plunging them into blackness. Grant jerked his hands away from the steering column, immediately assuming it's his fault.

"What'd I touch?!"

"You didn't touch anything. We've stopped."

"I must've touched something. This happens all the time. It must be my fault. Machines hate me."

"Machines hate you?" Malcolm asked, amused.

"Yeah, they hate me."

"You want to talk about this?"

"No."

* * *

Arnold stared at his terminal, aghast, as row upon row of colored lights crawls off on his screen.

"Woah, woah, woah, what the hell, what the hell?"

"What now?" Hammond groaned.

"Fences are failing, all over the park! A few minor systems, he said!"

Muldoon stepped forward, growing alarmed.

"The raptor fences aren't out, are they?"

Arnold checked. "No, they're still on."

"What about the two Land Cruisers?"

"Stopped somewhere around the tyrannosaur paddock…"

* * *

Tim was having fun with a pair of night vision goggles he'd found. He turned his head left to right, scanning the jungle. The night vision turned everything to dark shades of black and green. He could see Dr. Grant and Dr. Malcolm. He could see the steer wandering around the enclosure to their left.

He turned his head to the right, and froze. There was a dinosaur standing near the treeline. It was small, only a couple of feet long; but Tim knew what it was.

"Raptor!" he exclaimed.

"What?" Regis said, twisting in his seat.

"I see a raptor!" Tim said.

"That's impossible!" Regis said.

"Take a look, Lex." Tim handed the goggles to his sister. She put them on. "I don't see it," she said.

"To the right," Tim said. "Move them to the right…"

"I am, I am," Lex told him. "I don't see it."

Tim grabbed the goggles back from her and put them on.

The raptor was gone!

"Well?" Regis said.

"It must have run away," Tim said despondently. "But I know I saw it!"

Regis looked grim. He thumbed the intercom. "Dr. Grant?"

"Right here," Grant said.

"Tim says he saw a raptor."

"What? Where did he see it?"

"It was close to the trees," Tim reported. "About fifty feet away."

"Are you positive it was a raptor?" Grant asked.

"Yes," Tim said firmly.

There was a pause. "Radio control," Grant ordered.

Regis picked up the radio, but all they heard was static. "It's dead," he reported. "Try yours."

A brief pause, and then, "Ours is dead, too."

"Great," Regis said. "What do we do now?"

"Are we safe in the cars?" Grant asked.

Regis paused. "Yeah, we're safe. Not to worry."

To Tim, he sounded pretty worried.

* * *

"Well, this isn't good," Malcolm said, in the other car.

"No," Grant said. "It isn't."

"How in the world could he have seen it? It's darker than the inside of a…"

Grant thumbed the intercom. "Tim?"

"Yes, Dr. Grant?" the boy said.

"If you see anything else, let us know, okay?"

"Okay, Dr. Grant."

"Seems a smart kid," Malcolm murmured.

Grant bent over. "What are you doing?" Malcolm asked.

Grant reached under his seat. He'd noticed the box there before. He slid the box out from under his seat and opened it. Inside, there was a pair of brand new night vision goggles.

Grant put the goggles on. Suddenly, he could see for miles, despite the storm.

"This must be how the boy saw the creature," he said.

Grant moved his head, taking in the surrounding jungle. He moved up the electric fence, stopping when he reached the top.

"Uh oh," he said.

"What?" Malcolm asked.

"The lights on the fences are off," Grant said.

"So the power in the fences is off?"

"Could very well be."

Malcolm took a deep, shuddering breath.

* * *

Dennis Nedry moved down the corridors as the storm raged on outside.

He checked his watch. Yes, now was the time. All the staff would be at lunch.

He reached the end of the corridor and opened a door marked 'Freezer.' Cold air washed over him and he shivered. There were three pillars in the room. He walked over to the first one, grabbed hold of the handle on top, and pulled it up. There was a hissing as the coolant released. Inside, rows and rows of frozen dinosaur embryos.

Dennis glanced behind him, just to make sure no one was there. Then he reached into his bag and pulled out the can of shaving cream Dodgson gave him. He untwisted the bottom, like Dodgson had shown him. He removed the covering, revealing a secret compartment within the can with two dozen slots - perfect for stashing embryos inside.

He quickly began filling the can with embryos. He took several from each species, like Dodgson had told him. Two minutes later, he was done. He put the can in his bag, shouldered his bag, and walked out of the room.

He checked his watch. So far so good. On to the next stage.

He headed downstairs, to the garage. One of the jeeps was gone, so he took the other one. There was something hidden under a cloth in the passenger seat. He picked the cloth up, revealing a rocket launcher. Huh. He didn't know how to use the weapon, so it was useless to him.

Nedry stepped on the gas and drove out of the garage, heading east into the park.

* * *

The turbulent waves rocked the little fishing boat. Miles Chadwick looked up. The lamps throughout the park were turned off. "Well, the guy's done his job so far," he said. He turned around, to the woman behind him. "Don't relax yet, sweetheart: there's still a chance he'll screw something up, and if that happens we're gonna have to go in there."

The woman, a Costa Rican, shrugged. "It's just a zoo. What's the problem?"

Miles laughed, as if he found that funny for some reason. "Well, there's always the guards we have to deal with."

"Oh, not to worry," the woman said. She patted the gun in her belt.

"I like the way you think," Miles said.

* * *

"Where in the world is Nedry?" Hammond said. "Are the vending machines broken again?"

Robert Muldoon walked into the room. "He's not at the vending machines."

"Then where is he?"

"I don't know. Ray?"

"Yeah?" Arnold sounded distracted.

"How are things?"

"Not good," Arnold said. "No, not good at all."

"We have to find Nedry." Muldoon turned around and left the room. He ran into Henry Wu in the hallway.

"Something's wrong!" the man exclaimed.

"Tell me about it-"

"Someone's stolen the embryos!"

"What?" Muldoon roared.

"I was just in there a minute ago. At least two dozen are missing." Wu sounded hysterical.

Muldoon stared at the man. "Nedry," he said.

"What?"

Muldoon couldn't believe this was happening. He brushed past Wu without saying another word. He was heading for the garage.

When he got to the garage, he found the jeep missing. The one with the rocket launcher inside. He swore and quickly ran back upstairs.

* * *

When the power went out, David Banks' first priority was checking on the dinosaurs. Dr. Laura Sorkin had told him to stay away from the quarantine pens, but he had to make sure that they were alright, taking a flashlight and a tranquilizer rifle with him. He wasn't expecting it to be so… quiet. He found it uncomfortable.

The silence was broken by frightened chirping. Turning his flashlight toward the jungle, he saw a group of fearful compies running past him. They were fleeing from something, David realized. But what?

That question was answered by a clicking sound in the dark. David froze, recognizing the sound.

"Oh no."

He stared into the darkness and found a pair of eyes staring back at him. David realized with horror that the species designated IG74726f6f646f6e had escaped containment and he found himself wishing that had listened to Laura…

More pairs of eyes were now staring at him. The creatures were communicating to each other, their eerie clicks scaring the shit out of David. He knew he had to get out of here, that he had to somehow escape back to the field laboratory. He turned around and started to run, but felt jaws clamp down on one of his legs. David cried out and fell forward, the flashlight shutting off as it tumbled away. The only light that remained were the eyes of the creatures that now surrounded him. David desperately reached for his tranquilizer gun, which had also escaped his grip, but before his fingers could even brush against it he found himself being dragged away from his weapon by the creatures. David frantically clawed at the ground in an attempt to save himself, but it did no good. The only thing David could do now was scream.

And scream he did as the pack began to feast upon him. To think that his life was being ended by the creatures he and Laura had saved from being exterminated. How cruelly ironic.

Eventually, David's screams ceased and the only thing that could be heard were the clickings of his killers. Their hunger not yet satisfied, they headed out into the park to look for new prey. Despite how horrible his death had been, David was lucky, for a far worse fate awaited some of the victims of the newly freed carnivores…

* * *

The sign said 'Electrified Fence 10,000 Volts Do Not Touch', but Nedry opened it with his bare hands and unlocked the gate, swinging it wide. He went back to the Jeep, drove through the gate, and then walked back to close it behind him.

Now he was inside the park itself, no more than a mile from the east dock. He stepped on the accelerator and bunched forward over the steering wheel, peering through the rain-slashed windshield as he drove the Jeep down the narrow road. He was driving fast-too fast-but he had to keep to his timetable. He was surrounded on all sides by black jungle, but soon he should be able to see the beach and the ocean off to his left.

This damned storm, he thought. It might screw up everything. Because if Dodgson's boat wasn't waiting for him at the east dock when Nedry got there, the whole plan would be ruined.

Something dashed across the road, a white flash in his headlights. It looked like a large rat. It scurried into the underbrush, dragging a fat tail. Possum. Amazing that a possum could survive here. You'd think the dinosaurs would get an animal like that.

"Should have been there by now," he muttered to himself, shaking his head. "Should have been there-"

He hauled it around a corner and looked down, checking his watch. When he looked back up, his eyes go wide.

There was a white wood guard rail fence, right in front of him. He slammed on the brakes as hard as he can. The jeep fishtailed, skidding out of control in the mud towards the fence.

Nedry hauled the wheel hard to the side to try to control the skid, but the jeep skidded off the road, going halfway over the muddied embankment.

"God damn it!"

He dropped the car in reverse and hit the gas. The wheels spinned, sending mud flying everywhere, but the jeep went nowhere and just digged in further.

Nedry couldn't believe it. Frustrated, he got out of the jeep. He stopped suddenly, seeing another park road down the sloping embankment about twenty feet below.

There was a large sign alongside the road. Nedry leaned forward excitedly to get a better look. It read 'To East Dock.' He scrambled to the front of the jeep.

Nedry cranked a winch its coil on the front end of the jeep.

"No problem," he mumbled to himself. "Winch this sucker off the thing, tie it to a thing, pull it down the thing, and pull it back up."

He lost his balance and slipped, falling back on his rear. He slid down the muddy embankment, across the road below. Pissed, he got to his knees and searched for his glasses.

"Where are my glasses? I can afford new ones."

He stood and grabbed the winch, going to a sturdy-looking tree on the other side.

"You can make it!"

From the distance, there was a soft hooting sound. There's some movement in the bushes. Nedry looked around for the source of the sound and movement. He didn't find it. He nervously checked his watch and went back to the winch, but faster.

"No problem. Pop this thing right down-"

The hooting came again and Nedry turned. Again, nothing.

A figure ducked around the tree and popped out on the other side, hooting playfully.

"Hello?"

Nedry looked around one side of the tree. Nothing. It popped up on the other side, hooting again. And Nedry looked again. Nothing. It seemed like a friendly game of hide-and-seek. But Nedry began to get rattled.

"That's nice. Gotta go. I'm getting out of here. Come on, you can make it!"

He secured the winch and started across the road, back up the embankment. He froze, as he felt something behind him. He turned around slowly and saw a juvenile dilophosaur. She stood only about four feet high, she was spotted like an owl, and had a brilliant colored crest that flanked her head. She doesn't look very dangerous. In fact, she's kind of cute.

"Oh! Ah, nice girl. Nice girl! Nice dinosaur. I thought you were one of your big sisters. You're not so bad. You're not so bad. What do you want? You want food? Look at me. I just fell down a hill. I'm soaking wet. I don't have any food. I have no food on me. I have nothing on me."

The dilophosaur just stared at Nedry, tilting her head curiously. Nedry looked around on the ground and found a stick. He picked it up and chucked it at the thing. He threw it as far as he can.

"Nice juicy stick! Fetch!"

The dilophosaur watched the stick fly into the bushes, but turned her attention back on Nedry.

"Lame brain! What's the matter with you?"

He shook his head and started back towards the jeep, muttering to himself.

"Walnut brain… extinct kangaroo… hope I run over you on the way down-"

He's near the top when the dilophosaur suddenly hopped out right in front him, startling him. Nedry lost his balance and fell back. He got back to his feet, angry. He picked up a stick and chucks it at the thing.

"I said beat it!"

The animal hissed. The brightly colored fan around its neck flared wildly, two bulbous sacs on either side of her neck inflate. She reared her head back and Nedry felt something smack wetly against his chest. He looked down and saw a dripping glob of foam on his rain-soaked shirt. He touched it curiously, not comprehending…

It was spit.

The dinosaur had spit on him.

It was creepy, he thought. He looked back at the dinosaur and saw the head snap again, and immediately felt another wet smack against his neck, just above the shirt collar. He wiped it away with his hand.

Jesus, it was disgusting. But the skin of his neck was already starting to tingle and burn. And  
his hand was tingling, too. It was almost like he had been touched with acid.

Nedry opened the car door, glancing back at the dinosaur to make sure it wasn't going to attack, and felt a sudden, excruciating pain in his eyes, stabbing like spikes into the back of his skull, and he squeezed his eyes shut and gasped with the intensity of it and threw up his hands to cover his eyes and felt the slippery foam trickling down both sides of his nose.

Spit.

The dinosaur had spit in his eyes.

Even as he realized it, the pain overwhelmed him, and he dropped to his knees, disoriented, wheezing. He collapsed onto his side, his cheek pressed to the wet ground, his breath coming in thin whistles through the constant, ever-screaming pain that caused flashing spots of light to appear behind his tightly shut eyelids. Despite the pain he forced his eyes open and still he saw nothing but flashing spots against black. Slowly the realization came to him.

He was blind.

Nedry scrambled to his feet and staggered forward to try to get into the jeep, but smacked his head on the door frame and collapsed.

The can of shaving cream flew out of Nedry's jacket pocket and tumbled into runoff water, down the muddy hillside. Nedry got to his feet again and staggered in the general direction of the jeep. He reached the open door and felt his way in. He slammed the door.

There was another hoot. From inside the jeep.

Nedry turned and screamed. The dilophosaur was right there, in the passenger's seat. She hissed louder than before, her crest fanning angrily, vibrating, reaching a crescendo… And then there was a new, searing pain, like a fiery knife in Nedry's belly, and he reached blindly down to touch the ragged edge of his shirt, and then a thick, slippery mass that was surprisingly warm, and with horror he suddenly knew he was holding his own intestines in his hands. The dinosaur had torn him open. His guts had fallen out.

And she pounced, slamming Nedry back against the driver's window, shattering it. There was new pain on both sides of his head and he knew that the dinosaur had his head in her jaws, and the horror of that realization was followed by a final wish, that it would all be ended soon.

As Nedry's screams died out, rain and mud washed over the shaving cream can, burying it.

* * *

**Now we're getting to the good stuff... I should have the next iteration edited and published in a few days, but until then please leave a review if you've enjoyed this story so far. Though it starts out following the movie and novel pretty closely, it'll definitely break away from the source material more soon. Part of the fun of this experiment was the unpredictable directions it could go. I hope you've enjoyed the second part and will enjoy the third part as well. If you have any questions, I am free to answer them.**


	3. Third Iteration

**Yep, the third part is up already! Like I said before, all of this is already written so I'm just trying to edit and get it out to you as soon as I can. This is where things start to get more interesting, since it deviates from the movie's plot more and it brings us to where the story began... with a woman running through the jungle, chased in the darkness by creatures with bright eyes. This version includes characters from the Telltale game and this includes the turning point where they really start to affect the events of the original novel/film. Anyway, enjoy! And seriously, any feedback is appreciated and welcome.**

* * *

**Third Iteration**

_"Details emerge more clearly as the fractal curve is redrawn."_

-IAN MALCOLM

"You feel that?" Tim asked Lex.

"What?"

There was a faint rumble. "That."

Tim looked at the glasses of water on the dashboard of the car. There was another rumble. The water rippled. There was another rumble. The water rippled again. Another rumble.

"What is that?" Lex asked.

"It's probably the power trying to come back on," Regis reassured.

Then Regis saw something outside the car. His eyes went wide with fear.

"Jesus Christ," he swore.

Tim heard the sound of a door opening and he turned his head to see Regis stepping out through the open door, ducking his head in the rain.

"Hey, where are you going?" Lex asked.

Regis ran away without a word, not even bothering to close the door to the Land Cruiser behind him.

* * *

"Where does he think he's going?" Grant asked as Regis disappeared into the woods.

A sudden noise alerted Malcolm and Grant to the electric fence. Several of the cables snapped off the poles. The fence eerily creaked from being torn apart.

Then they heard it. A terrifying roar. A scream from some other world…

And a fully grown Tyrannosaurus Rex stepped onto the road in front of them.

Grant had never felt so afraid before. The Rex stood on the road between the two cars, her head moving back and forth, as if trying to decide which one to go for first. Then, with a great heave, she turned and started making her way toward their car.

Malcolm let out a moan.

The Rex took great heaving steps, each time she stepped, the ground shook like an earthquake. Grant's fear rose to exhilarating levels. He watched, petrified, as the Rex stopped in front of the car, and there was a brief pause. Then the head came down low, near the hood. Grant saw every line and detail in the animal's skin, including the scarring on her cheeks. The monster grunted, and then licked the hood of the car with a big, purple tongue. Then she raised one, massive foot and stepped on the hood. The front of the car bounced, Grant smashed his head against the ceiling. He heard Malcolm let out a little squeak of terror and turned his head. The Rex's enormous head was right outside Malcolm's window! The eye peered in at them, in a cold, reptilian stare.

A long and low growl emanated from the Rex.

Suddenly, a beam of light cut the darkness. Grant's head snapped towards it, and he realized that it was coming from the other car. Probably a flashlight or something… maybe… Grant's brain wasn't working right. But then the Rex stepped down, causing the Explorer to jump yet again. The massive beast turned, and started making her way to the other car. At first Grant was relieved; but then he realized: those kids are in that car!

* * *

Tim saw the animal in full view, attracted by the light. "Turn it off!" he screamed at Lex. When Lex saw Grant and Malcolm in danger, she'd grabbed the flashlight and flicked it on, and started waving it around in an attempt to get the Rex's attention. Well, she had! And now she was coming straight for them!

Lex switched the light off, and darkness descended.

Tim heard his and Lex's panicked gasps as the minutes dragged on. Nothing happened. The Rex was out there - somewhere. But where?

Then the lightning flashed, illuminating the outside of the vehicle. And Tim saw it. Two massive legs. For one brief moment he saw them, standing directly outside. Then it was dark again. Thunder rolled.

"Stay calm, Timmy," he heard Lex whisper, panicked.

Tim tried to stay calm.

But in the next moment the car jumped. Lex screamed. Lightning flashed and Tim saw the Rex's jaws around the hood of the car, sinking into the metal like it was nothing. And he saw the yellow eye, staring coldly.

Then, with a heave, the car began to lift up off the ground. Tim couldn't believe the incredible strength the animal possessed - but he was terrified.

But it seemed the weight was too much for even a tyrannosaur, and after a few moments the beast dropped them. The car bounced when it landed, rattling the two frightened children inside. A terrifying bellow ripped through the air, and to Tim, it sounded as if the Rex were angry.

He prayed she would go away.

The next second he lost awareness - and when he came to, he was lying on his face on the window. He blinked, and realized that Lex was whispering at him.

"Tim! Tim! Are you okay?"

Tim groaned and opened his eyes. He looked up, and saw the seats turned upside-down. He realized he was lying on the ceiling of the car. That could only mean the car was no longer on its tires. It was on its roof.

The Rex bellowed into the night.

* * *

Malcolm had remained frozen to his seat up until that moment, when the Rex lashed out with its mighty foot and kicked the car onto its roof. That moment - that was when he broke out of his reprieve, and began digging around in the backseat for something, anything he could use to help those poor kids…

He found a flashlight, a big, durable flashlight. He kept looking. He found a box and opened it. Flares! He grabbed one. He glanced at Grant, but Grant was still staring forward out the window, oblivious to him. Malcolm opened the door and got out of the car. He lit the flare and began waving it, shouting "Hey! Hey! Over here! Hey!"

The Rex stopped throttling the car for a moment and turned her massive head toward him. And Malcolm peed in his pants. He quickly got back in the car.

The Rex turned and started making her way back to them.

"Oh no," Malcolm said.

* * *

Harding drove into the garage, and was surprised to see Muldoon there, waiting for him.

"Muldoon!" he said. "What's going on? What's wrong with the lamps?"

"It's more than the lamps!" Muldoon replied. "We've lost all power. And we think Nedry might have had something to do with it."

"What?" Harding said. Now Ellie, Gennaro, and his daughter were out of the jeep too.

"What did you just say?" Gennaro demanded.

Muldoon didn't answer. "I have to go and find that man. Are you coming with me?" he asked Harding.

"But where are we…" Harding started to say.

Muldoon moved past him and got in the jeep. "Get in if you're going to."

Harding looked at Jess. "Dad?" she said. "If the power's off then the fences…"

"I know," Harding said. "I'm going with him. All of you go and find Hammond!"

"Dad!" Jess said.

"I'll be fine, Jess."

Harding got in the jeep beside Muldoon. "Weapons?" he asked.

Muldoon unshouldered two combat rifles. Then he put the jeep in forward drive and skidded out of the garage, back into the open.

* * *

As she waited for Dennis Nedry with Miles Chadwick at the East Dock, the Costa Rican woman looked off into the jungle. "Mariquita… stay warm tonight…" she whispered, before turning to Miles. "This storm is only gonna get worse."

"I know!" Miles responded. "Nedry isn't here. Fat bastard's probably stuck in a doorway somewhere. I guess we have to go with Plan B." He pulled out a photo of a cylindrical object. "This is what we're here to collect."

"Shaving cream?" the woman asked. This struck her as odd, but as long as she got paid and was screwing over InGen, she didn't care.

"Uh-huh. Sure. Shaving cream."

"Let's just get going." She started walking towards the jungle, Miles following as they went in after Nedry.

* * *

Malcolm took a death breath as the Rex took slow, ominous strides toward them. He turned to Grant.

"You know, at times like this one feels, well, perhaps extinct animals should be left extinct. Don't you have that feeling now?"

Grant nodded, feeling his heart pounding. "Yes."

"Get the kids."

In a second Malcolm was out of the car and running away from the Land Cruisers while waving his arms and yelling at the top of his lungs. He was successful at getting the attention of the Rex, which was quickly gaining as she pursued him.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit."

He could feel the tyrannosaur's breath down his neck. He was terrified and had no doubt that he was about to die. _Boy, I hate being right all the time,_ he thought as he tried to stay ahead of the rex for as long as he could, to buy Grant as much time as possible…

As he was flung into the air he thought of Kelly.

* * *

It took Grant a moment to pull himself together. Then he was out of the car and in the rain, running to help the kids while Malcolm distracted the rex. He tried not to think about what the tyrannosaur might do to the chaotician.

He dragged Lex out first. He was about to pull out Tim as well, when he heard Lex scream.

He turned around and to his horror there was a second tyrannosaur. This one was smaller, a juvenile. But still dangerous.

For a moment, Grant and Lex stared at the young tyrannosaur and she stared back. Then, with a roar, she charged.

Acting fast, Grant pushed Lex onto the overturned Land Cruiser before scrambling up himself. The young Rex snapped at his foot, grabbing his shoe with her teeth. Grant tried to shake himself loose, but the baby had an iron grip. She yanked, and Grant was pulled backward. He grabbed onto… something… he didn't know what… but for a moment his grip held. Lex grabbed his arm and started pulling on him. It was a tug of war between a juvenile T-Rex and a young girl. Grant heaved with all his might. He kicked with his free leg, landing a blow to the juvenile's head. She didn't even flinch. She continued to tug on his shoe. Grant felt his grip weakening…

The juvenile released Grant when she heard a roar louder than her own. The fully-grown adult was coming back, snapping at the juvenile. The young tyrannosaur fled while Lex helped Grant onto the concrete barrier that was behind the Land Cruiser. Beyond that was a drop. The Rex paid no attention to them. Instead, the Rex bended down and saw Tim still in the wreckage. Tim weakly tried to back away, but there was almost no room to move in there. The Rex opened her mouth wide and stretched her tongue into the car. Tim screamed and violently kicked as the tongue tried to wrap around him. But it failed and withdrew from the car. Roaring in frustration, she began pushing the car toward the edge. Grant saw it coming and he grabbed one of the dangling fence cables on the other side of the barrier.

"Grab a hold of me!" he told Lex.

She obeyed, wrapping her arms around his neck. He scrambled to the edge of the barrier and started to climb down. The cable was slick with rain, and all Grant could do was hang on as he and Lex slid rapidly down. Above them, the vehicle was now teetering over the edge, threatening to drop right on top of them if they didn't hurry. Grant gasped, as Lex had unwittingly started to choke him as she held on for dear life.

"You're choking me!"

The car groaned, nearly over the edge now. Grant looked to the side. There were other cables, out of the line of the car's impending drop. His feet scrambling along the concrete wall, Grant tried to swing over towards one.

"Grab a wire!" he shouted to Lex.

Lex nodded frantically and on the second swing she manages to grab hold of the second cable.

"I got it!"

The car fell. Lex and Grant were clear by inches, clinging to the second cable.

"Timmy!" Lex screamed.

The car crunched into the leafy top of a tree, resting on its roof some fifteen feet below them. Grant and Lex could see the Rex staring down at them from above, before letting out one final roar and turning away.

* * *

The jeep's tires ground through the muddied road. Muldoon sat at the wheel, grim and determined, trying to figure out what to do.

"If Nedry has the embryos then his next move is to get off this island," Harding said.

Muldoon nodded. "And he only has a couple of ways to do that. He can fly out or take a boat. Flying in this weather is suicide, so his only real choice is a boat."

"He must have someone waiting for him, to collect the stash," Harding said. "But not at the main dock."

"No. Far too obvious. But the east dock…"

"That's where he is. I bet my life on it," Harding said.

Muldoon turned the jeep around and started driving in the opposite direction.

"I just hope we get there in time."

* * *

Regis stepped out from behind the boulder, shivering. He looked around, making sure the coast was clear, and then started down the little service road. Man, was it dark. The jungle was a creepy place at night. But in the rain? He had the shivers all over.

Regis was glad to be alive. When he realized that the fence wasn't electrified, he hadn't given it another thought; he'd just ran. Now that time had passed, he felt incredibly ashamed and cowardly. Leaving those kids all on their own. Running away. Saving himself. Yes, he was ashamed. As he walked, he was plagued by thoughts of what had transpired on the road after he left. Had the Rex attacked them? Attacked the kids? Were they alright? Had someone come to save them?

Regis made a decision then. He would make his way back to the visitor center; he would tell Hammond and Muldoon what had happened; and then he would personally accompany them to go and find those kids. If they were still alive.

The thought of going back started him quaking, but he refused to give in to fear this time. He was not going to run away again. He was going to help.

But first, he had to make it back.

* * *

"At least the rain's easing up," Chadwick commented before he smacked his head off a tree branch. "Ow! InGen should've paved this whole island!"

His companion, a woman named Nima, turned around to face him. Her hands were on her hips and she stared at Chadwick intently.

"InGen should never have come here. Step back, Mr. Chadwick."

"What, you don't like my aftershave?" Chadwick asked.

"I don't want any accidents." Nima said, pulling out her machete.

She walked towards the thick foliage and began hacking her way through the jungle. After a trek through the jungle, the two came upon a large fence.

"What is this monstruosidad?" Nima exclaimed. "InGen is ruining the island."

She noticed a sign on the fence stating that the fence was a ten-thousand volt electric fence.

"Is it so important to keep people out?" she asked out loud.

"Don't worry about it," Chadwick told her. "Just find a way through. The power should be out."

Nima noticed a stick laying on the ground. She walked over, picked it up, and tossed it at the fence. Nothing happened. She then walked up to the fence, slowly reaching out a hand and grasping a cable. Still, nothing happened.

"Lead the way," Chadwick insisted.

As Nima and Chadwick climbed over the tall fence, they never noticed the sign labeled, 'Dilophosaurus.'

As Nima and Chadwick walked through the jungle, Nima noticed a strange shape on the ground. She knelt down to examine it.

"What is it?" Chadwick asked.

"Que es esto?" Nima wondered. "Not báquiro. Like a bird, but much too big…"

"It's a zoo, remember?" Chadwick reminded. "All kinds of animals! Get moving. Our tracking device says we're close."

The two continued their trek until they were halted by a faint hoot that echoed in the jungle.

"Did you hear that?" Chadwick said nervously. "What was that?"

"An animal," Nima said. "Something that I've never heard before…"

Nima pulled out her machete and proceeded to poke at various bushes with the machete. Suddenly a toucan flew out of the bushes, startling Chadwick. "Oh God!"

"That animal, I know," Nima recognized. "We call him Moku-Pa."

"I hate this damn jungle!" Chadwick whined.

"Look," Nima said, drawing Chadwick's attention to a tunnel off in the distance. "This way."

As the two walked along the road, they noticed car on a slope by the road.

"Over there," Nima pointed out.

"There we go," Chadwick grinned. "Hey Nedry! You get stuck or something? Nedry! You deaf!?"

No one answered.

Nima began climbing up the slope. "Hey I'm going to go around," Chadwick told her. "It'll be faster." He vanished.

Nima approached the car. "Somebody in there?" She tapped on the window. Nothing. She tried to open the door, but the door refused to budge. She looked into the windshield, but the inside was fogged up. She went back to the door and tugged on the handle with all her might, finally opening the door. Inside was the eaten remains of Dennis Nedry. Suddenly a creature leapt out with a hoot and fled, knocking Nima down.

Chadwick walked around from behind the car and saw Nima on the ground, panting.

"All tired out, huh? I told you it was better to go around!"

"Something just… jumped me," Nima gasped. "It was on your friend here."

Chadwick peered into the car and saw what was left of Nedry.

"Aw, that's disgusting!" he cried out.

"There was something… feeding on him." She needed answers. "What the hell kind of zoo is this?"

* * *

Ed Regis heard voices and quickened his pace. In the dark tunnel, he couldn't see anything. But he heard voices. Maybe it was Muldoon…

He ran faster, his footsteps echoing in the tunnel. He could see the end, it wasn't far now.

* * *

"You hear that?" Chadwick asked. He put a hand to his ear.

Nima listened. Yes, footsteps. They were coming from the tunnel. Nima turned and saw a man coming out of the tunnel.

* * *

Regis froze when he saw two people he didn't recognize. One was a Costa Rican woman and the other was a man wearing glasses and an InGen uniform. Both were armed with guns and the woman had a machete. They also seemed baffled at the sight of the dirty mud-covered Regis with stains between his legs.

"Who the hell are you people?" Regis asked cautiously.

* * *

Grant and Lex were at the bottom of the large barrier leading up to the park road. Like it or not, they were in the park now, and are surrounded by think jungle foliage on all sides. Grant was bent over a big puddle, splashing water on his face, rinsing the blood off and trying to bring himself to.

Poor Lex was scared as hell. She stood behind Grant, ramrod straight, her breath coming short, desperate gasps. Her eyes were wide and she didn't look like she could move.

Grant turned and looked up to the tree the Explorer fell in. It was stuck there, nose down in the thickest top branches.

Lex's gasps were getting louder. She was terrified.

"Hey, come on, don't - don't - don't - just - just - stop, stop." Grant touched her, but it was awfully awkward, more of a pat on the head than anything strong or reassured.

But she responded to the contact, hurling herself forward and throwing her arms tightly around his waist. She clamps here, holding on for dear life, sobbing.

"Lex, you gotta be quiet, please," Grant told her. "Stop it. Shhhhh."

This seemed to quiet her. Grant turned and looked up at the tree again.

"Timmy!" Grant called out in a whispered shout. "Timmy!"

He heard a cracking sound and the Explorer fell a few feet lower into the branches.

Grant looked down at Lex, who is sitting on a rock.

"Dad," she said to herself. "Dad-"

"Shhh, I'm right here, Lex," Grant reassured. "I'm going to look after you. I'm going to help your brother. I want you to stay here and wait for me, okay?"

"He left us," she whimpered, referring to Regis. "He left us."

"That's not what I'm going to do," Grant promised.

Grant walked to the tree. Lex scampered into the culvert.

Grant took a deep breath. grabbed hold of the first branch, and started his long climb. Fortunately, it was a good climbing tree, its branches were thick and regularly spaced.

Grant moved at a good pace. He reached the car's level, on the driver's side five or six feet to one side of it.

The car was in rough shape. It was much thinner that it use to be, its nose completely smashed in, the front wheels driven solidly into a thick branch, holding it in placed.

"Tim?" Grant called out. "Tim?"

Grant came up to the car and looked in. Tim was huddled on the floor on the passenger side, frightened, hugging his knees to his chest.

He looked up at Grant with a tear and blood-streaked face. "I threw up," he said, his voice barely audible.

"That's okay," Grant told him. "Listen, give me your hand."

Tim didn't move.

"I won't tell anybody you threw up," Grant promised. "Just give me your hand, okay?"

He reached out. Tim reached too, but they were still about a foot apart. Grant grabbed hold of the steering wheel to pull himself further in. The wheel turned.

On the branch, the front wheel turned, losing a bit of their grip on the thick branch they're resting on.

Tim and Grant grabbed hands. Grant held on to him, getting an arm securely around his waist. They climbed down. They stopped on a branch.

"Okay, that's not so bad, ah Tim?"

"Yes it is."

"It's just like coming out of a tree house. Did your dad ever build you a treehouse, Tim, eh?"

"No."

"Me too." He started to move down. "Okay. Well, the main thing about climbing is never, never look down, never.

"This is impossible," Tim complained. "How am I going… I can't make it. This is… it's about fifty feet. What if the car falls?"

The car groans forward on the branch, which sagged in their direction. They looked up. The car began to shift dramatically towards them.

"Oh no," Grant realized.

They both climbed down, as fast as they could, as the big branch that was supporting the car creaked, ready to give way any second.

"Go, Tim, go!" Grant urged. "Faster! Faster!"

The branch broke. Disintegrated, really, and the car fell straight at them.

Grant and Tim released the branch that they were on and fell, thudding into another branch a few feet down. The car smacked into the big branch they just vacated, and stopped there.

Grant and Tim were half climbing, half falling down the tree now, slipping on the resin-covered branches, just trying like hell to get out of the way.

The second branch broke, and now the car smashed and crashed through a network of thinner branches, headed right for them. It hit open space and went into free fall.

Grant turned, and put up his arms in defense and the car stopped, slamming into a thick branch just above him.

Grant looked up, eyeball to eyeball with the front grill.

The new branch started to creak.

Grant and Tim basically fell down the rest of the tree, the car bashing its way through right behind them. They jumped the last six or seven feet and hit the ground, hard.

Grant grabbed Tim and rolled with him, to the side, just as the car smashed into the earth behind them.

Lex was still in the culvert, terrified, slowly banging her head against the wall.

Grant was at the mouth of the culvert, carefully studying a map of the park. He looked up, picking a direction, and shoved the map in his pocket decisively.

He looked back in at Lex.

"Lex, you're going to have to get out of there." He walked towards her. "Hiding isn't a rational solution; we have to improve our situation."

She didn't move. Grant gestured to Tim.

"Tim's out here. He's okay."

Still nothing. Grant tried a new tactic and started walking away.

"Of course you could just wait in there while we go back and get help."

Tim followed Grant, playing along. He nodded. "That's a good idea."

"You'll probably be safe enough on your own…"

"I doubt it," Tim added.

"Maybe." Grant shrugged. "It's hard to say."

"Liar!" Lex snapped. "You said you wouldn't leave!"

"I'm trying to use psychology to get you out of the drain, you know!" he explained.

She just stared at him like he was nuts. Tim shook his head at Grant, as if to say 'nice try'. Grant calmed his tone.

"Alright," he said. "We're just going to walk back home. Together."

We walked over to Lex at the culvert and sat across from her.

"But we can't go back the way we came. What we have is a free-range T-Rex on the road. If we meet her between here and the lodge, we'd have problems. But what this means is that this whole paddock is empty. It's safe."

"It's safe?" Lex asked.

"It's safe," Grant nodded. "And that's the way we're going to go. What do you say?"

"Alright," Lex finally said.

Lex crawled out of the culvert and stood next to him.

"Good girl," Grant smiled.

Tim and Lex nodded, and he started off in the direction he indicated. They trailed behind him.

* * *

"Uh, we, we're…" Chadwick stammered. "We uh, we're guards, yeah, and we found this guy, this guy here."

The red-haired man remained frozen where he was, looking back and forth from Chadwick to Nima. Nima reached into her pocket and pulled out her gun. She pointed it at the man. The man's eyes widened with shock. "What are you-" he started to say.

"Come over here," Nima ordered.

The man didn't budge. He goggled at her disbelievingly.

"I said move!" Nima yelled. "Come on, right now."

The man remained frozen for another moment before taking a tentative step forward, his hands up. His whole body was vibrating.

"I have had a really difficult day!" he exclaimed.

"That's alright man, we don't want trouble," Chadwick said. "Just come up here and we'll talk. Come on, we can be civilized." He glanced at Nima.

"Hurry up," Nima ordered.

The man began to scramble up the slope, a difficult task as he was still holding his hands up.

"What are we gonna do?" Chadwick whispered to Nima. "We can't let him go; he'll squeal."

"You're right," Nima said.

"You're not gonna…"

Nima didn't answer.

The man reached the top of the muddied slope and looked from Chadwick to Nima. His chest was rising and falling in quick gasps. He looked terrified. "Don't kill me."

"I don't want to kill you," Miles said. "We just-"

Suddenly the bushes to the right of them shook. Everyone's gaze darted to the movement. "What was that?" Miles asked.

A soft hooting carried across the road. Nima glanced at their prisoner and saw that he was shaking with fear. "It's the-"

At the bottom of the road, a little green dinosaur about the size of a large dog, hopped out of the bushes and looked at the humans.

"It's a dilo," the man squeaked. "It can shoot poison spit."

"What?!" Chadwick said incredulously.

The little dinosaur observed the three humans with something akin to curiosity. Then she took a bounding step forward.

"Shoot it!" Chadwick shouted.

Nima pulled the trigger several times in quick succession. The explosions rattled the dinosaur and she turned around and fled back into the bushes.

"Good one," Chadwick said.

Nima turned to face him. That was when she noticed that the red-haired man was gone.

"Where'd he go?" Chadwick asked.

"Forget about him," Nima decided. "We have a job to do and I'd rather not waste anymore valuable time. But first, you have some explaining to do, Miles. What the hell was that thing? And don't lie."

"A dinosaur."

"A dinosaur?" Nima wasn't sure if he was telling the truth. "Are you kidding me?"

"InGen has been making dinosaurs on this island and are planning on using them as theme park attractions."

Nima thought for a moment. That thing did look prehistoric… "Alright. I believe you. And what does shaving cream have to do with this? No more need-to-know crap."

"The can has a false bottom that can be screwed open," Chadwick explained. "It's a secret container for stolen dinosaur embryos. But they won't last forever, so we really need to find it now…"

Chadwick looked through Nedry's jeep. "Shit!" he cursed. "It's not here! Dammit! We're screwed!"

"Calm down," Nima told him. "It can't be far from here. Look around."

"Alright," Chadwick nodded. "Can I ask you something, Nima?"

"What?"

"Were you going to kill that guy?"

Nima didn't answer. She turned away from Chadwick. He shrugged. "Fine. Forget I asked."

Honestly, Nima didn't know. Would she have pulled the trigger? It didn't matter, she decided. And hopefully this would all be worth it…

Chadwick pulled out a flashlight and turned it on, and began searching the ground around the jeep while Nima kept watch. "Look at all this mud!" Chadwick said incredulously. "It could be buried. We'll never find it." He kicked the tire again.

"Don't give up," Nima told him. "Keep looking."

Chadwick muttered a bunch of swear words as he continued looking.

Nima heard that soft hoot again and looked up. The creature was standing with just her head poking out of the foliage. Nima raised her gun and shot once. Chadwick screamed. "What's the deal?" he demanded. "You scared me."

The creature ducked her head and disappeared back into the foliage.

"Don't mind me," Nima said. "Keep looking for the can."

Chadwick resumed looking, and he looked for about five minutes. During that time, the little green dinosaur revealed herself three more times, and each time Nima dissuaded her with a bullet.

"It's hopeless," Chadwick said at last. "It's probably hidden under all this mud. It's impossible to find it."

Nima came over to him. "You are stepping on the clues!" she exclaimed.

"What?" Chadwick said, confused.

Nima bent down, examined the ground. "The man. He was a fat man, wasn't he?"

"Very fat," Chadwick said.

"Look at this, here," Nima said. She gestured to the big indent in the mud, like someone had fallen down.

"He fell," Nima observed. She moved her gaze slowly down. "And he dropped the can."

She scuttled to the bottom of the slope. There was a big mound of mud at the bottom. She began to dig through it, her hopes soaring.

Her fingers closed around something hard, and she pulled it out.

The can!

"Well done!" Chadwick exclaimed.

She brushed the can off. "What a lot of work for shaving cream."

"Uh-huh, yeah," Chadwick said. "Can I have it?"

She looked at him, suspicious. He rolled his eyes. "Come on, I'm not going to screw you over."

"How can I believe that?" she asked.

Chadwick sighed, exasperated. "There are dinosaur embryos in there," he explained. "They need to be kept frozen, or they're worthless." He reached into his pocket and pulled out… something. A little tube it looked like. He held it up to her. "I need to freeze them so they stay fresh for the boat ride back."

"Okay," Nima said. She handed him the can.

"There," he said, and Nima heard the release of chemicals. "That'll do the trick. Alright, now all we gotta do is get out of here."

Nima nodded. "We can take the car," she suggested.

Chadwick looked horrified. "The car? With Nedry's dead body inside?"

Nima put her hands on her hips.

"Okay, fine," Chadwick grumbled. He looked up at the vehicle. "But first we have to get it down."

"The tow cable." Nima pointed to the winch on the front of the jeep.

"Good plan," Chadwick said.

Chadwick and Nima walked behind the car and began pushing against it. Using all their strength, they managed to push the car over the log. The car went down the slope and struck a tree.

"Yeah!" Chadwick cheered. "We did it!"

Nima smiled. "Now let's get the hell out of here."

She climbed down the slope and pulled what was left of Nedry out of the car. "Sorry, Nedry. Nothing personal, you just smell really awful." She did feel sorry for Nedry though, even though she didn't know him. Nobody deserved to die that way. She turned to Chadwick. "Ready to go?"

He didn't answer.

"Miles, are you ready to go?"

"Nima…"

She turned around and saw Chadwick staring at her wide-eyed.

"What?" Nima asked.

Miles pointed behind her. "Look," he said quietly.

Nima looked in the direction he pointed and she heard the soft hooting sound. The juvenile dilophosaurus emerged from the jungle. And she wasn't alone…

She had brought friends.

Nima checked her gun to see how many bullets she had left. "Not enough."

"Oh God," Chadwick whimpered fearfully. "Oh God."

The lead dilophosaur lowered her body to the ground, letting out a rattling hiss. Then, she jerked upright again, and the flaps of skin on her neck stretched out like a fan, and began to rattle.

Chadwick screamed. Nima heard the sound of a door opening and closing. She turned and saw that Chadwick had gotten in the car. She decided she had better do that to.

The rest of the dilophosaurs copied the first one with the neck-flap thing. Nima thought it was a sign of aggression.

She opened the door and got in the car - sitting down right where Nedry's body had been. A horrible stench washed over her, it was nauseating. She scooched as far away from the stains as she could, disgusted.

She heard odd little chirping noises and looked out the window. The dinosaurs were eagerly hopping around the car, sniffing it, sliding their bodies against it. One of them jumped on the hood. She stared at Nima with a cold reptilian gaze. Then she brought her head down on the windshield. A crack appeared in the glass, and Chadwick said, "Hurry, drive!"

Nima attempted to start up the car but nothing happened.

"Dammit!" Nima yelled. "Come on!"

Nima tried to start up the car again. The glass started to crack more as the dilophosaurus continued slamming the windshield with her snout. Chadwick screamed. "Holy shit!"

The car finally started and Nima it into reverse. As the car began swerving around, the dilophosaurus fell off and onto the ground. Another dilophosaurus looked up and was crushed by the car as it ran over her.

"I think we just killed something!" Chadwick shouted.

"Good!" Nima responded.

She got the car out of reverse and drove into the tunnel, leaving the dilophosaurs behind them. Chadwick started to laugh uncontrollably. "We did it! Thank God! East Dock here we come!"

Nima noticed a stain between his legs. Chadwick covered it, embarrassed. "Keep your eyes on the road!"

It seemed like their troubles were behind them…

* * *

Muldoon and Harding were tense as Muldoon drove the jeep down the slippery, muddy road. One false move and they've be in the ditch. But that was the least of their problems.

It had been at least fifteen, maybe twenty minutes since the power went off and Nedry vanished.

If he really had taken the embryos, and his target of escape was the east dock, they had precious little time to get there…

Muldoon glanced up as he drove and saw a sign that said 'East Dock,' and underneath, an arrow pointing them in the right direction.

"If we don't catch that sucker…" Muldoon didn't want to think of the implications.

At last the dock came into sight. And sure enough, there was the other jeep.

"That fat son of a…" Muldoon said darkly.

Harding glanced at him. Part of him wondered if Muldoon planned on bringing Nedry back alive.

They drove closer and closer to the dock. Harding could make out two figures walking toward a boat. Wait, two figures?

The car skidded into the clearing. Muldoon jumped out, gun in hand, and Harding quickly followed. "Freeze!" Muldoon screamed, like a ravage animal. "Dennis! Put your hands up!"

A gunshot rang crisp and clear through the air. And then Muldoon slumped to the ground.

Harding rushed to Muldoon's side and checked his vitals. Unconscious, but still alive. He could now get a clearer look at the two figures. One of them was a man wearing glasses and an InGen uniform. The other was a Costa Rican woman. The man was holding a can of shaving cream and a gun. The woman possessed a gun and a machete, but was holding up Muldoon's rocket launcher. "Put your hands where I can see them," she ordered. "And put your gun down…"

Harding nodded, carefully putting his gun down and putting his hands where the man and the woman could see them. "Let's not do anything hasty…"

"Take their guns!" the woman told the man.

"Hey, I'm the one in charge here-" the man argued.

"Dammit, now's not the time!" the woman snapped. "Shut up and take their guns!"

The man nodded and took Harding and Muldoon's guns, grumbling.

"Where's Nedry?" Harding asked.

"Nedry's dead," the woman told him. "One of your dinos got him."

"What are we going to do with them?" the man asked the woman.

The woman gestured toward Muldoon. "You should get your friend medical attention," she told Harding. "Get in your car and drive away. Don't try anything funny."

Harding nodded obediently, not wanting to provoke them. He dragged Muldoon over to his jeep and got in himself. He began backing away.

* * *

"Are we really going to let them get away?" Chadwick asked Nima.

Nima nodded. "You got a problem with that?"

"Hey, I'm not arguing with the woman who has a rocket launcher."

"Good choice."

Chadwick and Nima ran to the boat and jumped in. Nima let out a tired sigh. "Yeah!" Chadwick exclaimed. He tried to high-five Nima, but she wouldn't go for it.

The captain of the vessel, Bob, looked at the two of them with something akin to fear. "Are we ready to depart?" he asked, a bit anxiously.

"Wait," said a voice behind him. Nima turned. Her employer, Lewis Dodgson, stepped into the faint light. He was stone faced as he asked for the canister. Chadwick gave it to him: "All yours, boss."

Dodgson unscrewed the lid and checked the embryos in the hidden compartment. After a moment, he gave a nod. "I see you refreshed them," he said.

"Yep," Chadwick said. "Like you told me."

Dodgson was quiet for another moment, then nodded again. "Well done, both of you. You've more than earned your pay." His gaze darted to Nima. "Especially you, Miss Cruz. Your quick action back there may have saved our lives. I know Chadwick here wouldn't have been so brave."

Chadwick folded his arms and scowled at the jab to his ego.

"None of that matters now," Dodgson said. He put the canister in his bag. He smiled. "Smooth sailing from here on out."

Nima looked up at the stars. The clouds were gone. The storm had passed. She took it as a good omen. Without the crashing rain and shrieking wind, she could hear every little sound within fifty feet of them. Including the heavy splash behind them.

She turned around. She saw ripples at the shoreline where something had gone in. She turned back to the men. "Come over here, quick!"

They quickly came to her side. "What is it?" Chadwick asked.

She pointed out the ripples to them. "What's that?" Chadwick asked.

"Something following us," Dodgson said. He went to the back, and came back with a machine gun. He flicked the safety, then put the gun over the rail and fired. The sound was deafening. Dodgson let off a loose burst and then stopped. The ripples were gone.

"Well, there we go," Chadwick said with finality.

Then there was a splash behind them and Nima spun around as Bob screamed. Something - a coiling mass of skin - was slathering over the rail, onto the boat. With imperceptible speed, the creature jumped on Bob. The sailor's muffled screams were cut short. Dodgson raised his machine gun and fired. Nima and Chadwick did the same. Silence fell. Nima's eyes darted around quickly, searching for a glimpse of this assailant.

Nima spotted a few drops of blood on the deck. Whatever that thing was, they had wounded it. But where did it go?

They were so focused on their one stowaway that they didn't notice more creatures swimming toward the boat…

* * *

Harding hit the brakes when he saw a man standing in the road ahead. To his surprise, it was Regis. Harding immediately got out of the jeep.

"Regis?"

"Hey, Dr. Harding," Regis said with a smile, relieved to see a friendly face he recognized. "Can you give me a ride?"

"Of course! I was taking Muldoon back to the visitor center-"

"No!" Regis stopped him. "We need to go to the tyrannosaur paddock! Hammond's grandchildren and his experts could be in danger!"

Harding nodded and climbed back into the car. "Climb in."

Regis eagerly did so and Harding stepped on it, hoping that they were not too late…

* * *

Nima's full attention was on the creature in the darkness. She was eager to shoot it once it revealed itself. But then she heard a noise behind her and turned to look. A pair of jaws snapped closed inches from her face. She screamed. Suddenly, there were more of them - swarming up the sides of the boat. Nima shot her gun without thinking. The air was filled with the sound of gunshots. Nima glimpsed a pair of three-fingered hands clutching the railing and teeth flashing in the moonlight. Terror overwhelmed her. She looked forward, and saw multiple of the creatures, their eyes blazing, blocking them from the boat's controls. Nima knew chances of survival were slim. So at this point it didn't matter what she did. All that considered, she turned around and jumped into the water. The water was freezing cold, chilling her to the bone in an instant. She began to swim. She expected a pair of jaws to fasten around her leg at any moment, but it didn't happen. She heard screaming. It sounded like Chadwick. Nima swam harder. She heard another splash - could it be one of the men, or a dinosaur? She swam even harder. She reached the shore and quickly pulled herself onto dry land. She'd made it. She looked back to the boat and saw the creature's eyes blazing in the darkness. They were remaining on the boat. That could only mean they'd made a kill.

Movement caught her eye, and she turned to see a figure running like mad for the jeep. "Hey!" she exclaimed. "Wait!" The man ignored her and started up the jeep and drove out of there. Nima cursed.

She heard a rustling sound behind her. She drew her machete - the only weapon she had left - and turned to face the sound. Suddenly, something ran past her at great speed - and Nima screamed as she felt excruciating pain in her arm. She looked at her arm. Something had bit her. The pain was so intense, she had to grind her teeth to keep from screaming.

She heard an odd clicking noise in the bushes around her. Okay, that was enough. She turned and began to run.

She stopped only once when she saw something on the ground. Dodgson's bag. How did it get here? She opened it up and found the can of shaving cream. _I should probably hold onto this,_ she decided. She then ran into the jungle.

She never saw the glowing eyes appear in the foliage.

* * *

**A few minutes later…**

A woman staggered onto the road in front of a car. Beeping the horn, the driver slammed the brakes and swerved out of the way, barely missing a collision. The woman collapsed in the car's headlights and the driver got out, kneeling down and noticing the wound on the unconscious woman's arm. Not just noticed it. Recognized it.

"Shit," Dr. Laura Sorkin cursed. She had been heading to the visitor center, figuring that was the safest place to be.

A clicking snarl erupted from the bushes ahead and a creature hidden in the darkness darted across the road.

Moving fast, Sorkin picked up the woman and carried her to the car.

As she drove away, three pairs of eyes lit up in the darkness…

* * *

**Part of the fun of this experiment was the unexpected turns that could happen because of the other person you're telling the story with. Having Dodgson go to the island was my friend's idea and it definitely made things more exciting. And if you haven't already figured it out, the creatures with glowing eyes are the "main threat" of this retelling. They are what I like to call the "boogeymen" of Jurassic Park. Thank you for reading, and I'll try to have the fourth part out soon.**


	4. Fourth Iteration

**Time for the fourth part of this reimagining. Considering what came before and and what will come after, this is rather tame. The calm before the storm. Enjoy...**

* * *

**Fourth Iteration**

"_Inevitably, underlying instabilities begin to appear."_

-IAN MALCOLM

Harding drove the jeep down the smooth road. He glanced at Muldoon in the back; the man was groaning and mumbling in his sleep. Ed Regis was beside him, keeping an eye on him.

They were coming up on the T-Rex paddock. They'd be there in just a couple seconds. Dread clotted in Harding's gut. What would they find? A couple of half-eaten corpses? Or was everything perfectly fine?

The headlamps illuminated a Land Cruiser. The hood of the vehicle was bent inward, like someone had thrown a boulder onto it. Beside it, the fence had been trampled and smashed. Harding cursed. He was afraid this would happen. There was no denying the fact that the T-Rex had broken out of her enclosure.

He stopped the car and he and Regis got out. They checked the remaining Cruiser. There was nobody inside. "Where's the other one?" Regis asked.

"How should I know?" Harding replied.

"Wait - did you hear that?" Regis said.

"What?"

"It sounds like breathing."

Harding listened. Yes, he heard it too. "It's coming from over there," he said, pointing.

He and Regis made their way toward the sound. Harding reached into his belt and pulled out a flashlight. He turned it on and scanned the road.

He noticed something - a dark mass - lying about five yards away. At first he thought it was a piece of debris, but as he got closer, he saw the pale skin. It was a man.

"It's Malcolm!" Regis said.

Harding bent down next to the man and checked his pulse. He felt one. "He's alive," he told Regis. Harding scanned him with the light. "It's his leg. The Rex bit his leg."

"But she didn't eat him," Regis said.

"No," Harding said. "Come on, I think we can carry him."

He and Regis then picked the man up and carried him back to the jeep. Muldoon was regaining consciousness. "Where's Nedry?" he mumbled.

"Don't worry about it," Harding told him. "We're going to get you to a doctor."

"We have a doctor?" Regis asked.

"Yep," Harding said. "It's me."

"But you're a vet."

The two men got in the jeep and drove off into the night.

* * *

"Are we going to walk all night?" Tim asked Grant.

"I don't think I can," Grant admitted. "We'll have to stop, at least for a few hours."

"Where are we going to stop?" Lex asked, immediately.

Grant thought for a moment. "I'm going to climb a tree and have a look around," he finally announced.

High in the branches, he had a good view of the forest, the tops of the trees extending away to his left and right. They were surprisingly near the edge of the forest. Beyond that, a large open field and in the distance, more trees, and misty moonlight sparkling on the ocean. Somewhere he heard the bellowing of a dinosaur, but it was far away. Grant then saw what he was looking for: the dark strip of a service road, leading to the flat rectangle of a roof. The roof was barely above ground level, but it was there. And it wasn't far.

When he came back down it took only a few minutes to lead the kids to the embankment leading to the below-grade service road, and the maintenance building off to the right.

Somewhere in the distance, they heard the tyrannosaur roar. "Is she around here?" Lex asked.

"No," Grant reassured. "We're in another section of park from her." They slid down a grassy embankment and moved toward the concrete building. In the darkness it was forbidding, bunker-like.

"What is this place?" Lex asked.

"It's safe," Grant said, hoping that was true.

The entrance gate was large enough to drive a truck through. It was fitted with heavy bars. Inside, they could see, the building was an open shed, with piles of grass and bales of hay stacked among equipment.

The gate was locked with a heavy padlock. As Grant was examining it, Lex slipped sideways between the bars. "Come on, you guys."

Tim followed her. "I think you can do it, Dr. Grant."

He was right. It was a tight squeeze, but Grant was able to ease his body between the bars and get into the shed. As soon as he was inside, a wave of exhaustion struck him.

"I wonder if there's anything to eat," Lex said.

"Just hay." Grant broke open a bale, and spread it around on the concrete. The hay in the center was warm. They laid down, feeling the warmth. Lex curled up beside him, and closed her eyes. Tim put his arm around her. He heard sauropods trumpeting softly in the distance.

Neither child spoke. They were almost immediately snoring. Grant felt the warmth of the children against his own body. He closed his eyes, and slept.

* * *

Meanwhile in a maintenance shed a few miles from the tyrannosaur paddock, three park workers sat in wait, totally oblivious to the fact that some of the most dangerous monsters to ever be created were now roaming the island, confused and out of containment. All they knew is that the power had gone out, and one of the Rexes was out of her pen.

The shed was dark. They were hungry. But none of them dared to step outside.

One man, a repairman named John Harris, cranked their lamp for what must have been the fiftieth time. John could barely even remember what the maintenance shed looked like with the power on.

"I'm sick and tired of this," he huffed. "How about we just break for the jeep and hope the Rex isn't still sticking around?"

"I don't think she's still around," said Thomas Albert from in the darkness where the lamp light couldn't reach. "I haven't heard her roar for at least an hour."

Harris nodded. "Me neither."

"If you're so sure," said Trey Roland from the corner. "Then why don't you just step outside and find out?"

John didn't say anything. Sure, he was tired of sitting in this maintenance shed waiting for a call that wouldn't come, but, at the end of the day, there was still a T-Rex outside. At least, there was a few hours ago, and there was no telling whether or not the Rex was still around. And John wasn't taking his chances to find out.

But Thomas seemed confident that the Rex had left them. He stood from the darkness and made for the door.

"Alright then," he said, adjusting his maintenance helmet in an overly dramatic manner. "I'll see you guys at the Visitor Center, okie dokie?" He grinned, grabbing the door handle.

Trey rolled his eyes.

John raised an eyebrow. "You're actually going out there?"

"Yeah dude," Thomas said. "Y'all can stay behind if you like. I understand if you're not emotionally prepared for the challenge of travelling to a building via automobile." He grinned again.

"Careful, your ego's getting outta hand," Trey said. "It's gonna eat you alive."

Thomas opened the door and had barely taken a step before a large green shape fell upon the man and two strong jaws clamped his head in place, keeping him still as razor sharp toe claws dug into his flesh.

John found himself running towards the door and tugging it shut before any of the monsters could get in.

He stumbled back and covered his ears to block out the screams.

* * *

Lewis Dodgson swore when he realized he had left his bag behind. Without that canister, all of this would have been for nothing! But he didn't dare go back for it. The only thing he cared more about than the canister was saving his own life. He had to try to put more distance between himself and those things that had gotten poor Chadwick. Had they gotten Cruz as well? She might have made it onto shore as well, but Dodgson was in such a panic that he didn't wait around to make sure. She was most likely dino food anyway. A damn shame.

Dodgson had no idea where he was going. This island and its layout was completely unfamiliar to him. This wasn't supposed to happen. And now Dodgson wasn't sure how he was going to get out of this. Biosyn wasn't going to send another boat. He was trapped on Isla Nublar.

Faced with this realization, Dodgson swore again and struck the wheel angrily. All his careful planning...

He turned a corner and saw a concrete barrier up ahead. He quickly slammed on the brakes and stopped short of the wall before he could hit it. Dodgson took a deep breath. He had been driving like a lunatic and could have gotten himself killed. He needed to think.

For a moment Dodgson listened to his heavy breathing and for the first time noticed the awful smell coming from his seat. It smelled like something had died in here. Then he realized something had died in here. Nedry. The poor bastard.

Dodgson knew he had to calm down. He could go back for the canister in the morning, he decided. When there was light. After that, he knew he couldn't get caught by the other people on the island. If he was lucky, maybe Biosyn would send another boat or a helicopter to find him. Unlikely, but Dodgson had to hope. It was the only chance he had.

But first Dodgson knew that he had to find some shelter. The cracked windshield told him that he wouldn't be safe forever in the car.

He took a deep breath and started the car again, driving down the dirt road at slower, less chaotic speeds. He prayed he wouldn't run into any dinosaurs. Dodgson had lost his gun when he was swimming for his life and he was no longer in control of this situation. He wasn't confident that he was going to survive, but he had to try.

Was he scared? Hell yes. But he was also determined to not end up like Nedry, Bob, Chadwick, or Cruz. He missed California though and he wished that this ordeal would already be over and behind him…

* * *

Harding drove the jeep into the garage. "Go get help," he told Regis. Regis nodded and dashed off.

Harding heard a muffled voice behind him. Muldoon was waking up again. "Harding, what's going on?" he asked.

Harding patted his knee. "Just hold on, we're getting help."

Regis returned a few minutes later with Ellie, Gennaro, Hammond, Wu, and Jess. Hammond waddled along, saying, "My grandchildren! Where are my grandchildren?"

Harding hugged his daughter before turning to the old man. "They weren't there when we got there," he explained.

"Where is there?" Hammond demanded.

"The T-Rex paddock," Regis said.

"What happened to them?" That was Ellie. She was in the back, looking at the two injured men. "Muldoon looks like he's been shot!"

"One of Nedry's accomplices did that," Harding explained.

"And Malcolm looks like he got bit!"

"He did. By the T-Rex."

Gennaro gasped. "The T-Rex got out of her pen?!"

"I'm afraid so," Harding said.

"And my grandchildren?" Hammond asked. He was white as a sheet.

"I don't know. We didn't find any remains. So there's a good chance they and Grant managed to escape."

Hammond staggered. Gennaro reached out and steadied him.

"You!" Hammond screamed, pointing at Regis. "You were supposed to take care of them!"

Regis backed away from the man. "I tried…"

Harding stepped in between the publicist and his boss. "It's no one's fault," he told Hammond.

"Excuse me, Malcolm is dying over here!" Ellie called. "We have to get him some medical attention."

"Leave that to me," Harding said. "Let's get him and Muldoon upstairs."

Another jeep drove into the garage. Laura Sorkin got out.

"Dr. Sorkin," Harding recognized. "I'm glad you're okay."

Sorkin nodded. "I decided with the power out I should head to the visitor center."

"Where's David?" Wu asked.

Sorkin looked down. "He… didn't make it. I told him it was too dangerous, but he chose to check on the quarantine pens. I heard his screams as he was eaten alive…" She fought back tears, still not over the gruesome death of her assistant and close friend. "I'm so sorry…"

"You aren't to blame," Harding reassured. "We're just glad you're safe."

"What about the power?" Sorkin asked. "When will that come back on?"

"We don't know," Wu answered. "Nedry sabotaged the park's systems so he could steal dinosaur embryos and transport them to the East Dock."

"What's the damage?"

"The T-Rex got out and injured one of Hammond's guests. His grandchildren are missing and Nedry was killed by a dilophosaur according to Regis."

"So we can't get him to fix the systems and restore power."

"Unfortunately not. Ray is trying to find out what he did, but it's progressing slowly."

"I found someone while driving," Laura remembered. "She needs medical attention."

Sorkin lead Harding and Wu to her car. An unconscious woman was in the passenger's seat. Harding gasped.

"This was one of Nedry's accomplices. Looks like she was bitten by something. The wound is getting worse…"

Wu recognized the bite and realized the implications. But first they had to treat this woman before it was too late. Then he would deal with Sorkin…

Carrying Malcolm and assisting Muldoon and the woman Sorkin found, the survivors made their way upstairs and to the control room.

Arnold was alone in the control room. He looked up as the group entered. "Is that Malcolm?" he asked.

"Yes," Ellie replied. She and Harding placed the man on a table.

"Look, maybe this isn't the best place for-"

"There's no time," Harding interrupted. "Malcolm needs help fast. Someone get me the first-aid-kit."

Wu ran off to get it.

Hammond walked over to Arnold. "Progress?" he asked hopefully.

"I think I'm getting somewhere, yeah," Arnold replied. "Check this out. White rabbit object."

Wu came back with the first-aid-kit. Harding opened the kit and started rifling through the contents. He found the morphine and quickly injected Malcolm. He turned to Sorkin. "What do I do with her?" he asked.

"Leave it to me," Sorkin replied. "Is there any carfentanil in there?"

"Yeah, but what for-?"

"Trust me on this," Sorkin said.

Harding turned his attention to Arnold. "It's a command code," the man was saying. "Nedry punched it in and it shut off keystroke logging, meaning I couldn't see what he was up to." The man sounded somewhat impressed. "It's not a bad trick."

"Well, can you get the power back on?" Hammond demanded.

"I'm working on it."

Harding got back to work on Malcolm, cleaning his injuries, spraying them with disinfectant.

"How are things going?" Ellie asked him after a while.

"That T-Rex's mouth is full of bacteria," Harding said. "I'm afraid Malcolm's infected."

"What can we do?"

"It's beyond my ability to heal. We need professionals."

"Well, that's not going to happen unless Arnold gets the power back on."

* * *

"She's stable," Sorkin reported, about the Costa Rican woman.

Wu was standing nearby, arms folded. "I'm sorry about David," he said.

"Me too."

"How could you have been so stupid? You knew those things were too dangerous but you kept them anyway."

"I did what I thought was right."

"Look where that got you."

Sorkin sighed. "Look, I have to help this woman. I'd appreciate a little room to maneuver."

"We're not over this," Wu vowed. He turned and walked away.

* * *

The pack of juvenile dilos feasted on what was left of Nedry. He was a large man and there was plenty of meat to go around.

Then in the dark the dilos heard something that made them stop eating. Clicking sounds. Immediately the dilos abandoned their meal and fled into the jungle in a frightened panic, away from the clicking sounds.

In the distance, the tyrannosaur roared.

* * *

**June 12th, 1989**

Grant opened his eyes and yawned. He stretched sleepily and sat up.

Soft yellow light came through the side windows. It was morning. From around the corner, he heard a squeaking sound, like a rusty wheel. And then Lex giggling.

Grant stood slowly, and looked at the building. Now that it was daylight, he could see it was some kind of a maintenance building, with stacks of hay and supplies.

"Chew your food," Lex was saying. "Don't be a piggy, Ralph."

Grant walked around the corner and found Lex by the bars, holding out handfuls of bay to an animal outside that looked like a large pink pig and was making the squeaking sounds Grant had heard. It was actually an infant Triceratops, about the size of a pony. The infant didn't have horns on his head yet, just a curved bony frill behind big soft eyes. He poked his snout through the bars toward Lex, his eyes watching her as she fed him more hay.

"That's better," Lex said. "There's plenty of hay, don't worry." She patted the baby on the head. "You like hay, don't you, Ralph?"

Lex turned back and saw him. She smiled.

"This is Ralph," she introduced. "He's my friend. He likes hay."

"Where's Tim?" Grant asked.

"Peeing," she answered. "You want to help me feed Ralph?"

The baby Triceratops looked at Grant. Hay stuck out of both sides of his mouth, dropping on the floor as he chewed.

"He's a very messy eater," Lex said. "And he's very hungry."

The baby finished chewing and licked his lips. He opened his mouth, waiting for more. Grant could see the slender sharp teeth, and the beaky upper jaw, like a parrot.

"Okay, just a minute," Lex said, scooping up more straw from the concrete floor.

"Why is his name Ralph?"

"Because he looks like Ralph," Lex shrugged. "At school."

Grant didn't ask her to elaborate. He came closer and touched the skin of Ralph's neck gently.

"It's okay, you can pet him," Lex told him. "He likes it when you pet him, don't you, Ralph?"

The skin felt dry and warm, with the pebbled texture of a football. Ralph gave a little squeak as Grant petted him. Outside the bars, his thick tail swung back and forth with pleasure.

"He's pretty tame," Grant noticed. Ralph looked from Lex to Grant as he ate, and showed no sign of fear. It reminded Grant that the dinosaurs didn't have ordinary responses to people.

"Maybe I can ride him," Lex suggested.

"Let's not."

"I bet he'd let me. It'd be fun to ride a dinosaur."

They heard a deep snorting sound, like the snort of a very large horse, and suddenly the baby became agitated. He tried to pull its head back through the bars, but got caught on the edge of his frill, and he squeaked in fright.

The snorting came again. It was closer this time.

Ralph reared up on its hind legs, frantic to get out from between the bars. He wriggled his head back and forth, rubbing against the bars.

"Ralph, take it easy," Lex said.

"Push him out," Grant said. He reached up to Ralph's head and leaned against it, pushing the animal sideways and backward. The frill popped free and the baby fell outside the bars, losing his balance and flopping on his side. Then the baby was covered in shadow, and a huge leg came into view, thicker than a tree trunk. The foot had five curved toenails, like an elephant's.

Ralph looked up and squeaked. A head came down into view: six feet long, with three long white horns, one above each of the large brown eyes and a smaller horn at the tip of the nose. It was a full-grown Triceratops. The big animal peered at Lex and Grant, blinking slowly, and then turned her attention to Ralph. A tongue came out and licked the baby. Ralph squeaked and rubbed up against the big leg happily.

The infant turned away from the bars and walked off. From time to time, the big Triceratops Ralph with her snout, guiding him away, as they both walked out into the fields.

"Goodbye, Ralph," Lex said, waving. Tim came out of the shadows of the building.

"Alright," Grant nodded. "Let's go."

They crawled through the bars, stepping outside.

It was just before dawn.

The air was warm and humid, the sky soft pink and purple. A white mist clung low to the ground. Some distance away, they saw Ralph and the big Triceratops moving away toward a herd of other Triceratops.

It was peaceful and silent in the early morning, hardly a breeze to stir the branches.

Suddenly, the herd of Triceratops became agitated and moved to protect the young ones…

Just as the adult Tyrannosaurus burst from the trees with a roar.

* * *

The lamp slowly started to fade.

John frantically cranked it again to keep he and Trey from being engulfed with darkness.

The two maintenance workers had been walking down the tunnels in silence for about an hour now, absolutely petrified by Thomas' death, as well as the horrible cackling monsters that had kept them from travelling through the maintenance tunnels in the first place.

However, now they had no choice but to walk through the tunnels. The raptors that had killed Thomas had began to learn how to turn door handles, and no amount of propping pipes against the door was going to keep them out for long. So, much to the dismay of Trey, who was particularly hesitant about the idea, they decided their only chance was going through the maintenance tunnels.

But now John was beginning to regret their decision.

The longer they traveled, the larger their crowd grew. Dozens of white, glowing eyes watched them from inside vents in the walls and ceiling, cackling occasionally, but mostly just watching. Walking when they walked, stopping when they stopped. They seemed curious in them and the hand crank lamp that John held in his hand, but never once tried to attack the men.

That is what really terrified John.

They had had to crank the lamp more and more often as their trek progressed, as the light was apparently wearing down from the constant use. The thought that it would stop working before they reached the next maintenance shed haunted he and Trey. Because the moment the light went out, the monsters in the darkness would be fools to not attack the two defenseless and blinded men. And when they struck, that would be the end of John Harris and Trey Roland, meeting an even worse fate then Thomas.

John picked up his pace.

* * *

Dodgson was able to find a small building where he could spend the night. He didn't sleep well, his fear of those creatures that killed Chadwick kept him awake. Only when the sun began to rise did he feel like it was safe to go out. He figured that those creatures had to be nocturnal. They wouldn't be out in the daylight? Right?

Dodgson then retraced his steps and found his bag near the East Dock. He was relieved at first, but quickly became horrified when he realized that the canister was not in it. He started to panic, until he noticed footprints in the dirt. Human footprints leading into the jungle. Nima. She must have taken the can. Unfortunately, there were also other tracks going in the same direction. Dinosaur tracks.

Dodgson followed the tracks into the jungle, expecting to eventually come across Nima's remains. He had to climb down a slope, but he was willing to do whatever it took to retrieve what was his. To his surprise, Nima's trail ended on a dirt road. He recognized tire tracks and quickly put together that somebody from InGen found her. Things had just become more difficult for Dodgson.

"Shit."

If he was lucky, none of the park employees would discover the importance of the canister. But what then? How was he going to get it back?

Dodgson returned to his car, which still smelled awful. But that didn't matter. Somehow he was going to get those embryos and get off this damn island. And hopefully before nightfall, since Dodgson did want another encounter with those creatures with glowing eyes…

* * *

Grant turned to the kids. "Lex, Tim, get back inside!" he ordered.

Lex nodded and grabbed Tim by the hand, taking him back into the building. But Grant stayed outside, watching the battle with a morbid curiosity, even though he knew he should get to safety. But he couldn't help it. He had always wondered how a battle like this would play out, and now was his chance to see, up close and personal.

The adult members of the Triceratops herd had begun to form a sort of circle of protection for the younger trikes, a circle of horns and roars against the Tyrannosaurus, who was pacing around the herd, searching for a time to strike. It seemed like the Rex had underestimated her abilities. She was enormously outnumbered.

One Triceratops lunged forwards at the Tyrannosaurus, who stepped back with a grunt. She scanned the circle of trikes, searching for an opening where she could lunge at one of the Triceratops younglings without endangering her life.

But it seemed like a lost cause. The trikes' broad shoulders and frills weren't letting a single break in their formation.

The Tyrannosaurus seemed to know there was no point in continuing the fight. She roared with fury at the herd and stomped away.

Right towards Grant and the kids.

The Tyrannosaurus froze, hearing the bellows of other dinosaurs in the distance. Hoping to find more prey, the Rex walked off and eventually vanished from view, much to Grant's relief.

* * *

"How is he?" Gennaro asked Ellie as he went to check on Malcolm.

"Surprisingly good," she answered.

Gennaro followed Ellie down to Malcolm's room, and was startled to hear the sound of laughter. The mathematician was awake, laying on his back in the bed.

"So the other man says, I'll tell you frankly, I didn't like it, Bill. I went back to toilet paper!"

Gerry Harding, who had been treating Malcolm, was laughing.

"It's not bad, is it?" Malcolm said, smiling. He saw Gennaro. "Ah. Mr. Gennaro. You've come to see me. Now you know what happens from trying to get a leg up on the situation."

Gennaro came in, tentatively.

"He's on fairly high doses of morphine," Gerry explained.

"Not high enough, I can tell you," Malcolm said. "Christ, he's stingy with his drugs. Did they find the others yet?"

"No, not yet," Gennaro shook his head. "But I'm glad to see you doing so well."

"How else should I be doing, with a compound fracture of the leg that is likely septic and beginning to smell rather, ah, pungent? But I always say, if you can't keep a sense of humor…"

Gennaro smiled. "Do you remember what happened?"

"Of course I remember," Malcolm said. "Do you think you could be bitten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex and it would escape your mind? No indeed, I'll tell you, you'd remember it for the rest of your life. In my case, perhaps not a terribly long time. But, still - yes, I remember."

Malcolm described trying to buy Grant some time so he could save the kids and being chased down by the Rex, who picked him up in her jaws.

"How?" Gennaro asked.

"Torso," Malcolm said, and lifted his shirt. A broad semicircle of bruised punctures ran from his shoulder to his navel. "Lifted me up in her jaws, shook me bloody hard, and threw me down. And I was fine - terrified of course, but, still and all, fine - right up to the moment she threw me. I broke the leg in the fall. But the bite was not half bad. Considering."

"Most of the big carnivores don't have strong jaws," Gerry explained. "The real power is in the neck musculature. The jaws just hold on, while they use the neck to twist and rip. But with a small creature like Dr. Malcolm, the animal would just shake him, and then toss him."

"I'm afraid that's right," Malcolm nodded. "I doubt I'd have survived, except I don't honestly feel I had her full attention. She had mine, of course. But, then, she weighs eight tons. I don't."

"I'm going to check on our other patient now," Gerry said, starting to leave.

"So long as you leave me Dr. Sattler, and ample morphine," Malcolm said.

"So who's Kelly?" Ellie asked once Gerry was out of the room. "You said that name a lot while you were unconscious."

"The best thing that came out of my second marriage," Malcolm explained. "Being a single father isn't easy, but it's rewarding. I love kids and I'm very proud of her. She's staying with a family friend right now, a fantastic woman named Karen. I miss Kelly terribly, though I have my doubts I will ever see her again." He sighed and closed his eyes. In a moment, he was sleeping.

Ellie frowned. "Don't be fooled," she told Gennaro. "It's a great strain on him. He needs surgery on that leg. They need to restore power quickly and send for a helicopter to get him off this island or he won't make it."

Gennaro thought of his own kid. He was missing her birthday because of this trip. He frowned, regretting not being there and hoping that he would be able to survive this disaster to make it up to her.

* * *

Nima was surrounded by glowing eyes. As they went in for the kill, she woke up screaming. Realizing she was on a bed, she looked around to take in her surroundings. She was in one of the rooms in the Safari Lodge. She tried getting up, but realized she was handcuffed to the bed. Desperately searching for the canister, she saw it on a bed stand.

The door opened and a man walked in. Nima recognized him as one of the InGen workers who had tried to stop her and Chadwick.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her.

Nima wasn't sure how to respond. She was confused. "How did I get here?"

"A woman named Laura Sorkin found you while driving to the visitor center. Thanks to her, we were able to treat your bite wounds and save your life."

"What the hell were those things?"

"Excuse me?"

"Those things that attacked me! They were dinosaurs with glowing eyes that made clicking sounds!"

The man looked confused. "I'm sorry, but none of the species on the island match that description…"

* * *

The Costa Rican's account of the creature troubled Harding as he walked down the hallway. There was something… vaguely familiar… about the features that she'd described. Suddenly it dawned on him. There did indeed once exist a creature that matched Nima's description. But they were supposed to have been killed off. Then how…?

Quickly, he ran to find Henry Wu. He located the man in the control room. "Henry," he said.

Wu turned to him. "Yes?"

"The woman Laura found just told me about the thing that attacked her," Harding said, folding his arms. "It sounds a lot like she was attacked by a Troodon."

Everyone in the room turned their heads toward him. "Wait a minute, what?" Hammond said. "Troodon? Henry, you told me you killed them all off…"

"I did," Wu said. "Well, I guess, no, I didn't."

"What do you mean?" Harding snapped.

Wu held up his hands. "Calm down, calm down." He sighed. "I put Laura in charge of exterminating them. But she didn't exterminate them. She hid them in the quarantine pens."

"That woman is fired!" Hammond yelled.

"Hang on a minute," Jess said. "What's a Troodon?"

"It's a small carnivore, roughly four feet long and incredibly dangerous," Wu said. "Their bite contains a number of toxins that cause all sorts of problems. Nima had experienced only the beginning of the effects."

"Why in the world would you breed such dangerous animals?" Gennaro demanded.

"Once we realized how dangerous they were, Hammond ordered their deaths." Wu cursed. "I should never have left it up to Laura. I should have known she wouldn't do it. She has this… exempt fondness for the animals."

Gennaro began pacing. "As if we didn't have enough problems!"

Harding went back to check on the woman, ask her a few questions. But when he returned, the bed was empty. The woman and the can of shaving cream was gone. Somehow she had picked the lock on her handcuffs and escaped.

"Shit…"

* * *

"Is she gone?" Lex asked Grant.

"Yeah, she's gone…"

"Good. How are we going to get back to the visitor center."

Grant thought about this for a moment. He checked his map and grinned when he noticed something. "The river isn't very far from here," he told Tim and Lex. "It's also the quickest way back to the visitor center and there's a boathouse nearby. I'm sure that we'll be able to find a boat and go along the river. We'll be back in no time."

The kids liked this plan and they followed Grant across the field toward their next destination.

As they walked they happened across a sensor. Grant walked in front of the sensor and waved. The sensor had a number on it: B7.

"I don't think it's on," Tim said.

* * *

Arnold clapped his hands together. "I've got it."

"What?" Gennaro said.

Arnold pointed at the screen. "I found the command to restore the original code. The command resets the linked parameters, namely the fence and the power."

"That's good," Gennaro said. "I'll tell Muldoon."

* * *

Muldoon pushed himself out of bed. "Then there's work to be done," the game warden said. Gennaro had just told reported to him what Arnold had accomplished.

"Are you well enough?" the lawyer asked.

Muldoon waved his hand dismissively. "I've suffered worse than this."

Gennaro helped him to the door.

"Find me a radio." Gennaro found one, gave it to Muldoon. "Arnold, I'm assembling a crew to go out there and repair the fences," Muldoon said.

"Okay," Arnold said.

Harding ran into Muldoon's room, alarmed.

"Robert, we have a problem!"

"What is it now?"

"The woman got out of her handcuffs and left the bedroom!"

"Shit!"

* * *

When they reached the river and the small concrete dock, Grant and the kids froze in shock.

The tyrannosaur was right there.

She was sitting upright in the shade of a tree, her hind legs stretched out in front. Her eyes were closed and she was not moving, except for her head, which lifted and fell gently with each snorting sound. A clouds of flies surrounded her, crawling over her face and slack jaws, her bloody fangs, and the red haunch of a killed herbivore that laid on its side behind the tyrannosaur.

The tyrannosaur was only twenty yards away and it took Grant a moment to realize that the tyrannosaur was asleep. Sitting up, but asleep.

He signaled to Tim and Lex to stay where they were. Grant walked slowly forward onto the dock, in full view of the tyrannosaur. The big animal continued to sleep, snoring softly.

Near the end of the dock, a wooden shed was painted green to blend with the foliage. Grant quietly unlatched the door and looked inside. He saw a half-dozen orange life vests hanging on the wall, several rolls of wire-mesh fencing, some coils of rope, and two big rubber cubes sitting on the floor. The cubes were strapped tight with flat rubber belts.

Rafts.

The tyrannosaur raised her forelimb to swipe at the flies buzzing around her snout. But otherwise she did not move. Grant pulled one of the cubes out onto the dock. It was surprisingly heavy. He freed the straps, found the inflation cylinder. With a loud hiss, the rubber began to expand, and then with a hiss it popped fully open on the dock. The sound was fearfully loud in their ears.

Grant turned, stared up at the dinosaur.

The tyrannosaur grunted, and snorted. She began to move. Grant braced himself to run, but the animal shifted her ponderous bulk and then she settled back against the tree trunk and gave a long, growling belch.

Lex looked disgusted, waving her hand in front of her face.

Grant was soaked in sweat from the tension. He dragged the rubber raft across the dock. It flopped into the water with a loud splash.

The dinosaur continued to sleep.

Grant tied the boat up to the dock, and returned to the shed to take out two life preservers. He put these in the boat, and then waved for the kids to come out onto the dock.

Lex came silently, and he gestured for her to get into the raft; then Tim got in, and they both put on their life vests. Grant got in and pushed off. The raft drifted silently down the river. Grant picked up his paddles and fitted them into the oarlocks. They moved farther from the dock.

Lex sat back, and sighed loudly with relief. Then she looked stricken, and put her band over her mouth. Her body shook, with muffled sounds: she was suppressing a cough.

"Lex," Tim whispered fiercely, looking back toward the shore.

She shook her head miserably, and pointed to her throat. He knew what she meant: a tickle in her throat. What she needed was a drink of water. Grant was rowing, and Tim leaned over the side of the raft and scooped his hand in the lagoon, holding his cupped hand toward her.

Lex coughed loudly, explosively. The sound echoed across the water like a gunshot.

The tyrannosaur yawned lazily, and scratched behind her ear with her hind foot, just like a dog. She yawned again. She was groggy after a meal bigger than what she was used to, and she woke up slowly.

"Lex, shut up!" Tim said.

"I can't help it," she whispered, and then she coughed again.

On the shore, the tyrannosaur stumbled to her feet.

"I couldn't help it, Timmy!" Lex shrieked miserably. "I'm sorry!"

Grant was rowing as fast as he could.

On the shore, the tyrannosaur stepped off the dock and plunged into the water. She moved strongly into the river, chasing after them…

* * *

John Hammond was confronting Laura Sorkin, furious that she had kept dangerous secrets from him.

"I ordered those creatures destroyed! You disobeyed orders! Put lives in danger!"

"And what was I supposed to do, John?" Sorkin snapped angrily. "Let them be killed! Let a species become extinct all over again! All because they lacked tourist appeal? These are living, breathing creatures, John!"

"I know that!"

"Do you? For the first time in millions of years dinosaurs walk the Earth! And what do you do with them? Turn them into theme park attractions! Instead of studying them or preserving them you choose to make a profit and exploit these animals! There is so much we can learn from them! But you don't want knowledge, so you took shortcuts."

"Are you still angry about that? It saved us time and money-"

"And look at the consequences! By listening to Wu and having him fill the gaps with amphibian DNA, you have unauthorized breeding. John, you have wild raptors out there! You never understood them! You tried to control nature and look where that has gotten you!"

"Now you sound like Malcolm. Laura, I can't believe you threw your career away. You're done here. You are to cease all activities. It was a mistake to give you a field laboratory. A mistake I'm not going to repeat."

"Are you firing me? None of this would have been possible without me!"

"You're too fond of the dinosaurs."

"Because I'm not like you, Wu, or Ludlow! I recognize their importance! They deserve to be protected! Instead of sharing them with the scientific community, you kept them to yourself! This is all your fault! Pursuing entertainment instead of progress!"

"I'm not going to put up with your excuses!"

Hammond stormed out of the room, leaving Sorkin angrier than she had ever been. Those damn fools! All her bottled up frustration was being let out. All her work was going to be for nothing!

"This isn't over, John…" she bitterly said to herself.

* * *

Nima sprang like a gazelle through the jungle foliage. Her destination was the maintenance shed. She'd heard there were vehicles there.

She threw a glance behind her; no, no one was following her.

She emerged from the treeline and found a road. She began following it. It was exposed, but it might lead her to the maintenance shed maybe…

* * *

"Hold on to something!" Grant shouted to the kids as he watched the tyrannosaur, noticing how the animal swam. The tyrannosaur was now chest-deep in the water, but she could hold her big head high above the surface. Then Grant realized that the animal wasn't swimming, she was walking, because moments later only the very top of the head protruded above the surface. By then she looked like a crocodile, and she swam like a crocodile, swinging her big tail back and forth, so the water churned behind her. Behind the head, Grant saw the hump of the back, and the ridges along the length of tail, as it occasionally broke the surface.

Exactly like a crocodile, he thought unhappily. The biggest crocodile in the world.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Grant!" Lex apologized. "I didn't mean to!"

The tyrannosaur was now just a few yards away. Grant could hear her sharp snorting breaths as she came closer. Grant looked at the paddles in his hands, but they were light plastic. Not weapons at all.

The tyrannosaur threw her head back and opened her jaws wide, showing rows of curved teeth, and then in a great muscular spasm lunged forward to the raft, just missing the rubber gunwale, the huge skull slapping down, the raft rocking away on the crest of the splash.

The tyrannosaur sank below the surface, leaving gurgling bubbles. The water was still. Lex gripped the gunwale handles and looked back.

"Did she drown?" she asked.

"No," Grant said. He saw bubbles, then a faint ripple along the surface coming toward the boat. His eyes widened.

"Hang on!" The tyrannosaur's head bucked up beneath the rubber, bending the boat and lifting it into the air, spinning them crazily before it splashed down again

The tyrannosaur surfaced beside the boat, opened her jaws, and roared.

And suddenly they heard an answering roar.

Looking back, Grant saw the juvenile tyrannosaur on the river's banks, crouched over the adult's kill and claiming it as her own. The juvenile slashed at the carcass, then raised her head high and bellowed. The big tyrannosaur saw it, too, and her response was immediate, turning back to protect her kill, swimming strongly toward the shore.

"She's going away!" Lex squealed, clapping her hands. "She's going away!"

From the shore, the juvenile roared defiantly. Enraged, the big tyrannosaur burst from the river at full speed, water streaming from her enormous body as she raced up the hill past the dock. The juvenile ducked her head and fled, her jaws still filled with ragged flesh.

The big tyrannosaur chased her, racing past the kill and disappearing. They heard her final threatening bellow and then she was gone.

Exhausted from rowing, Grant collapsed back, his chest heaving. He couldn't catch his breath. He lay gasping in the raft.

"Do you have any kids?" Tim finally asked, breaking the relieved silence.

"No," Grant answered, shaking his head. "Although I've studied them in the wild."

Tim and Lex were not sure what that meant.

"I have a theory that there's two kinds of kids," Grant explained. "Those who want to be astronomers and those who want to be astronauts."

"I want to be an astronaut," Tim grinned.

"See, I was the opposite," Grant told him. "I never understood why anyone would want to go into space. It's so dangerous. You do one thing wrong and you're dead. The astronomer gets to study these amazing things from a place of complete safety. And truthfully, everything you really need to learn, you can learn it from the ground."

"But then you never get to go in space," Tim nodded.

"Exactly. The difference between imagining how things might be and seeing how they really are. To be able to touch them."

Lex shrugged. "I guess I'm more of an astronomer than an astronaut."

"Lex is a computer nerd," Tim teased.

"Hacker!" Lex corrected. "I'm a hacker!"

Another moment of silence passed. Lex spoke up. "So, what are you and Ellie gonna do now if you don't have to pick up dinosaur bones anymore?"

"I don't know," Grant answered honestly. "I guess we'll just have to evolve too."

The raft started to round a bend. Tim was the first to see something remarkable. He gasped, unprepared. "Look!" he shouted to the others.

Grant and Lex see what's ahead and is struck with awe. "Wow…" Lex said in amazement.

The rising sun illuminated an incredible valley filled with dinosaurs. Herds of long-necked Apatosaurus, club-tailed Euoplocephalus, duck-billed Parasaurolophus, and spiky-tailed Stegosaurus.

With the mist from the river and the play of light, it was like witnessing a kind of primal Eden.

Then Lex saw something else. "Hey, what's that?" She pointed to a building they were approaching. The Isla Nublar aviary.

* * *

**The park workers (John, Thomas, and Trey) were introduced by another player of the storytelling game. I honestly had trouble connecting them to the rest of the story, so for a while they just do their own thing before their paths cross with the main characters. I wasn't really sure what to do with them, since the player (who wasn't a regular participant) introduced this original trio right out of nowhere. But eventually they did find their place in this story, it just took some time. Next chapter, things will get intense... As always, please leave a review. I am very interested in what people think about this passion project. And any feedback will encourage me to do more stuff like this.**


	5. Fifth Iteration

**Welcome back! If you thought things were dangerous before, well in this chapter the stakes get even higher! I hope you're enjoying the story so far and will enjoy this part as well, because this is where the fun begins...**

* * *

**Fifth Iteration**

"_Flaws in the system will now become severe."_

-IAN MALCOLM

Ed Regis was in the supply room gathering… you guessed it… supplies.

He was dead beat tired and all night he'd been thinking about the same thing; those kids. And his cowardice that may very well have resulted in their deaths. He couldn't get it off his mind. Just couldn't…

He thought maybe he could make up for it by being more helpful from here on out.

Then from the darkness he heard it: a faint clicking. And a pair of glowing white eyeballs appeared in the gloom. And Regis' heart plummeted.

* * *

Grant got out of the raft and tied it to the dock to prevent it from floating away. He turned his attention to the aviary, squinting in the sun. The sunlight reflected off the glass almost blindingly.

"Why are we going there?" Lex asked.

"Because Regis mentioned on the tour that there's a lodge here," Grant said.

"There might be a phone," Tim finished.

They started toward the giant spherical bubble…

* * *

Muldoon drove his jeep down the road. His chest was killing him but he'd taken some meds, so the pain should - should - evaporate in a few minutes.

He decided to let Harding drive. He was too dizzy, too disoriented… he really shouldn't be out here doing this with a hole in his chest…

"There she is!" Harding exclaimed. Muldoon's eyes snapped open and he sat up. Indeed, the woman was about a hundred yards down the road. And she didn't seem to have noticed them yet…

* * *

Nima heard something and turned around. A jeep coming toward her. Swearing, she ran into the jungle in an attempt to lose her pursuers. She knew that she had been seen.

She kept running, remember a drop up ahead with a goat path she could use to climb down.

She finally reached the cliff and she froze, shocked by what she saw. A rollercoaster?

* * *

"Is that the lodge?" Lex asked. "What a dump."

Beneath the aviary dome, Pteratops Lodge was built high above the ground, on big wooden pylons, in the middle of a stand of fir trees. But the building was unfinished and unpainted; the windows were boarded up. The trees and the lodge were splattered with broad white streaks.

"I guess they didn't finish it, for some reason," Grant said, hiding his disappointment. "Come on, let's go back to the boat."

The sun came out as they walked along, making the morning more cheerful. Grant noticed that the ground and the foliage were spattered with broad streaks of the same white chalky substance that had been on the building. And there was a distinctive, sour odor in the morning air.

"Stinks here," Lex complained. "What's all the white stuff?"

"Looks like reptile droppings. Probably from the birds."

"How come they didn't finish the lodge?"

"I don't know."

They entered a clearing of low grass, dotted with wild flowers. They heard a long, low whistle. Then an answering whistle, from across the forest.

"What's that?" Lex asked.

She was answered when they saw the dark shadow of a cloud on the grassy field ahead. The shadow was moving fast. In moments, it had swept over them. He looked up and saw an enormous dark shape gliding above them, blotting out the sun.

"Woah!" Lex said. "Is that a pterodactyl?"

"Yes," Tim said.

Grant didn't answer. He was entranced by the sight of the huge flying creature. In the sky above, the pterodactyl gave a low whistle and wheeled gracefully, turning back toward them. As Grant watched, he saw a second pterodactyl appear in the sky, and a third, and a fourth. They were so beautiful, so graceful as they moved through the air.

These weren't ordinary pterodactyls, Grant realized. They were too large. They must cearadactylus, big flying reptiles from the early Cretaceous. When they were high, these looked like small airplanes. When they came lower, he could see the animals had fifteen-foot wingspans, furry bodies, and heads like crocodiles. They ate fish, he remembered. South America and Mexico.

Lex shaded her eyes and looked up at the sky. "Can they hurt us?"

"I don't think so. They eat fish."

"They're really big. Are you sure they can't hurt us?"

"Pretty sure."

One of the dactyls swooped down. It came from behind, streaking over their heads and giving Grant a glimpse of its toothy beak and the furry body. It looked like a huge bat, he thought. But Grant was impressed with the frail appearance of the animals. Their huge wingspans - the delicate pink membranes stretched across them - so thin they were translucent - everything reinforced the delicacy of the dactyls.

"Ow!" Lex shouted, grabbing her hair. "It bit me!"

"It what?" Grant said.

"It bit me! It bit me!"

She took her hand away and stared in horror at the blood on her fingers.

Up in the sky, two of the dactyls folded their wings, collapsing into small dark shapes that plummeted toward the ground. They made a kind of scream as they hurtled downward, ready to attack.

* * *

"Forget it," Muldoon said to Harding. "She's long gone. Let the dinosaurs have at her."

With a last glance to the spot where the woman had disappeared, Harding resumed driving down the road. A few minutes later they arrived at the maintenance shed. Harding got out, slammed the door behind him. He noticed something glistening in the grass, and bent down to pick it up.

"What you got?" Muldoon asked.

"It's a earring." Harding turned the object over in his hand.

"Who'd it belong to?"

Harding was wondering that himself. "Maybe someone just dropped it," he suggested.

"Come on," Muldoon seemed suddenly anxious about something. He went inside, and Harding followed. It was pitch black inside. Harding turned on his flashlight. And then he saw the body.

* * *

Regis backed away. He couldn't see the animal well, just its big eyes. He had to get out. He did not want to look away from the thing though. He backed into the wall. He ran his hands across the smooth surface. He began moving to the right, heart pounding, feeling for the door. There, that was the doorframe. More to the right…

There! The doorknob! He twisted it and opened the door, slamming it shut behind him. He shivered; _that's twice now, Ed._ He thought he'd better report this.

"The Boneshaker," Nima read, pissed what InGen was doing to the island. She realized that she should probably retrace her steps. Maybe they wouldn't come after her.

Then she heard something. Bushes shaking. And something growling. She slowly turned, remembering that she had no weapons. No means to defend herself. She looked around for something… anything! Finding a large branch, she picked it up and wielded the branch like a club.

A dinosaur came out of the foliage. Though Nima wouldn't know this, it was a Herrerasaurus. A carnivore from the Triassic Period. And she was his prey.

Nima glared at the dinosaur, hiding her fear. If she was going down it wouldn't be without a fight. She wouldn't be an easy meal.

The dinosaur looked at Nima curiously, considering his options. She looked dangerous, but he was hungry and she was meat.

Somewhere in the distance, a dactyl screamed…

* * *

John and Trey sat in silence. Once again, they were trapped. The only difference was that instead of hiding from raptors, they were now hiding from dog-sized, white-eyed horrors. And instead of being inside the maintenance room, now they were sitting uncomfortably inside of a tool closet, crouched down in silence for an uncomfortable amount of time. Then again, they really didn't even have a sense of time down here. Who knew if it was day or night? All they knew was that their lamp was running out of battery, and they were getting increasingly hot in there.

The clicking of the monsters outside the door was still going on, although now it was much less frequent. It seemed the creatures were growing tired of scratching at the door, and were beginning to go terrorize people elsewhere. Maybe soon they would give up altogether and leave the two maintenance workers alone.

* * *

Meanwhile, Grant and the kids' raft had caught the attention of a large theropod.

A Baryonyx had emerged from the river while passing by and had begun to sniff curiously around the raft. This was a strange object, with a strange scent attached to it. An unfamiliar smell that this Baryonyx didn't like. She started prodding the raft with her snout, grunting.

* * *

"Could you tell me more about this dangerous Troodon that everyone is worried about?" Jess boredly asked Wu in the control room.

"Why do you want to know?"

"I figured my dad would want me to learn something during this educational experience," Jess shrugged. "Also, I'm genuinely curious and really bored."

Wu smiled, amused. "Troodon, meaning 'wounding tooth', is a small omnivorous bird-like theropod that was designated IG74726f6f646f6e after we recreated it," he explained. "They have very long legs with specialized feet, in which the middle long bone was pinched out at the top to form a shock-absorbing wedge. This allows them to run very fast. Their skin is pale gray with irregular dark dorsal stripes, a red underbelly, and a row of protofeathers running down their back. Their eyes are bulbous and have Tapetum lucidum, which is a layer of tissue that reflects light through the retina in order to see better in the dark that many animals such as cats, dogs, and raccoons have, which makes their eyes glow in the dark. As a side effect, they were unable to withstand intense light. They are just as intelligent as the Velociraptors if not more so and their primary weapon is their venomous bite. They hunt by biting their victim and stalking it as it suffers from the effect of the venom. The toxin in their saliva that their teeth retain causes hallucinations. In some cases this causes the victim to become violent and attack nearby individuals. Unless the infection is treated by an extremely powerful tranquilizer the victim will go into a series of convulsions and seizures. The final stage is paralysis and brain death. Upon Troodon's creation Hammond did not add the species to InGen's List because it did not fit his vision for Jurassic Park and he wanted them to be evaluated before considering adding an attraction for Troodon. Ultimately it was deemed that Troodon was a threat to his vision for Jurassic Park and he ordered that the clones be destroyed along with the records of their creation. You don't want to be left behind by this dinosaur."

"Why not?" Jess wanted to know.

"Well, we've seen a Troodon lay unfertilized eggs inside one of their paralyzed victims," Wu recounted, remembering the poor goat. "We presume that the victim's body is used to provide both body heat and food for the hatchlings if the eggs were fertile, which would proceed to eat the corpse from the inside out. This method of rearing young is like that of spider wasp species, which makes the Troodon being the only non-insect that uses this method."

"That's awful," Jess said in disgust. "And these dinosaurs are out there in the park?"

"It seems so, unfortunately," Wu told her. "We're safe though. They're nocturnal hunters, so they're most likely asleep and nowhere near us."

"Good," Jess nodded. She sat up and stretched. "I've been sitting down too long. I'm going to walk around the building for a bit. If my dad asks, tell him I'm fine."

"I will," Wu promised, watching Jess leave.

A few minutes later, Ray Arnold realized that he couldn't find his pack of cigarettes. He must have misplaced them.

* * *

"Get away from me!" Nima warned as she swung at the dinosaur.

The Herrerasaurus snapped at Nima as it looked for an opening. Nima had an idea and she began backing away toward the cliff. The dinosaur followed her while maintaining a safe distance, not minding this chase since he enjoyed having a little fun with his prey. He was not used to his food resisting or trying to fight back, it was a challenge he welcomed, something new besides all the livestock he was usually fed.

Nima was fast, but so was the dinosaur. Nima did her best to dodge the teeth of her opponent and the Herrerasaurus dodged her improvised weapon.

Suddenly, the dinosaur caught the branch in his jaws and bit down, snapping it in half. Nima looked in horror at her shortened club and the dinosaur growled at her. He leapt forward, trying to get his jaws around Nima's head. The woman fell back onto the ground, jamming what remained of her weapon against the dinosaur to keep her teeth from her flesh. She could feel his hot breath and his warm saliva dripping on her face, while his claws dug into her body. Having enough of this, Nima cried out and rolled to the side… off the cliff. Nima grabbed onto the edge and she felt the Herrerasaurus bite her leg to keep himself from falling to his death. Screaming in pain and feeling herself lose her grip, Nima kicked once…

The Herrerasaurus roared in frustration, which was followed by a loud SPLAT!

Nima climbed to safety, breathing hard. Her body was covered in scratches. She groaned in pain.

"Stupid dinosaur…"

* * *

Grant and the kids managed to make it safely back to the boat. Grant watched the dactyls spiraling around, gradually moving away. He sighed. But now they had a bigger problem. Grant's eyes widened when he saw the Baryonyx. The animal wasn't as big as the T-Rex - it was about thirty feet long - but Grant had no doubt that those jaws and talons could do some serious damage. Grant couldn't help but feel amazed, but he knew full well that this animal was highly dangerous. He pushed the kids into the bushes. "What are you-" Grant slapped a hand over Tim's mouth. "Shh," he said. He peered out of the bushes at the giant crocodile-like animal. She prodded the raft with her long snout, quizzical. Grant hoped she wouldn't slash the raft with those big talons. If that happened, then they were gonna be screwed.

In the sky above, Grant heard the scream of the dactyls. They had returned. Seeing the large dinosaur in their territory, the dactyls began making coordinated dives, attacking the carnivore. The Baryonyx snarled in fury as the claws of the dactyls cut into her flesh. The Baryonyx snapped at the dactyls furiously, but they flew away from her jaws. As the dactyls circled above her, the Baryonyx roared at her aerial enemies. The dactyls made another dive, dodging the Baryonyx's teeth while attempting to do as much damage as possible. The Baryonyx spun around in an attempt to take revenge, but the dactyls were too swift. And so the battle continued.

Grant and the kids watched the conflict in awe. They realized this might be their only chance to return to their raft. But was it worth the risk?

* * *

Nima stumbled onto the road, clutching the wounds that the now deceased Herrerasaurus had inflicted upon her. Every step was painful, but Nima was determined to find some way off this island and away from these damn dinosaurs. Her daughter was counting on her…

A jeep was heading toward Nima, but the injured woman could not muster the energy to run back into the jungle. The jeep stopped. The door opened. A man stepped out. A man wearing a stupid hat. What was he trying to be? A secret agent?

"Miss Cruz?"

It was Dodgson.

Dodgson immediately helped Nima into the passenger's seat of his jeep.

"I'm glad you're okay, Miss Cruz. Do you still have the canister?"

Nima managed a smile and she showed him the shaving cream can. Then she hit him.

"Ow!"

"That was for leaving me behind last night!"

"I'm sorry! It happened so quickly, I panicked, I wasn't thinking clearly, and I didn't even know if you were still alive or if those things had gotten you!"

"They almost did…"

"But you were rescued. By one of the people on the island."

"Yes. They handcuffed me to a bed. But I was able to pick the lock and escape."

"What injured you?"

"Some type of dinosaur. Don't worry though. I took care of it."

Dodgson looked through the jeep and found a first-aid kit. He started treating Nima's wounds.

"Thanks," she told him. "So what now?"

"We go to the docks and hope a retrieval team is sent for us. The best we can do is wait for rescue."

"We'll be sitting ducks!"

"Do you have a better idea?"

She didn't. Dodgson started the jeep. "This car smells awful…"

"That's because Nedry was killed in the seat you're sitting in."

"Yep. That explains it… so did you tell the InGen people anything?"

"They know nothing."

Dodgson nodded. He was thinking. He was worried that she might somehow lead back to him. It was most important that he wasn't caught and his company's involvement wasn't revealed. He liked Miss Cruz, she was useful. But as much as he hated it, Nima might be a loose end that he would have to deal with before leaving the island. He had the can, but he didn't need the woman… and with all the dinosaurs loose, this island could be a dangerous place. Accidents happen…

* * *

Regis burst into the control room, panting. "Guys-"

"I won't do it!" Arnold said. He was talking to Wu and Hammond. "You guys think it's as simple as switching a TV on and off," the engineer continued. He sounded aggravated. "Well it's not-"

"I'm fully aware," Wu said calmly yet surely. "But the fact is, you're not going to find the command that Nedry used. This is our only option."

Regis came over, temporarily forgetting his flight from the Troodon. "What's going on?" he asked.

"They're talking about shutting down the system," Ellie told him.

"Completely?"

She nodded.

"Like a hard reset?"

"Yes," Arnold said. "But we've never done it before. It may not come back on at all. Then we'd be real screwed."

"Malcolm's dying," Ellie reminded him.

"Yes, I know," Arnold said. "The fact remains-"

"The fact remains that more people are going to get hurt if you don't shut down the system!" Wu said.

Arnold turned his gaze to Hammond. He needed his approval.

Hammond regarded him for a moment, then nodded. "I just want my grandchildren back," he said softly.

Arnold sighed. Then he stood up. "Alright, you got it."

He went to the power box and unlocked it. A moment later the entire building was plunged into darkness. Regis heard Arnold's footsteps in the darkness. Then he caught a glimpse of something. Two glowing white eyes. And with a sickening feeling he realized that this was the moment the creatures had been waiting for, for everything to go dark. There was a bustle of movement, scraping sounds, and then Arnold began to scream.

* * *

The sounds of shrieking dactyls and a snarling Baryonyx faded into the distance. Grant decided it was too dangerous trying to retrieve the raft and he did not want to endanger the kids. They'd have to take the longer way back to the visitor center, but it was safer.

Suddenly, with a mighty hiss, a juvenile dilophosaur reared up right in front of them. It dropped down again. Grant and the kids turned to run back the way they came, and another dilophosaur reared up, flaring its hood. They were trapped. Grant started running laterally into the jungle, pulling the kids. On either side, hooting and thrashing in the underbrush. Directly ahead, a third dilophosaur hissed up into view. Grant and the kids dove into ferns to the side.

"What is this, a convention?" Grant asked.

On all sides, hisses and hoots. Grant and the kids, beneath giant five-foot ferns, listened. Grant slowly peeked out. Above the ferns, he saw two dilophosaurs. They are different: one larger and brightly colored, one smaller and dark. They hoot agreeably, and bob. A third dilophosaur, also larger and brightly colored appeared at the edge of the fern-frond. Immediately, the first dilophosaur screamed and flared at the intruder. The intruder matched. The first dilophosaur screamed intimidatingly. The intruder dropped its hood and backed away. The first dilophosaur returned its attentions to the small dark one. Gentle hoots. Gently replying hoots… Grant ducked back down.

"Are they fighting?" Lex asked Grant.

"Not exactly," Grant realized.

"It sounds like fighting."

Grant looked again, and Tim sneaked a peek too.

"I think they might be preoccupied now," Grant whispered. "Come on."

The group began crawling away, slipping past the dilophosaurs, which were entwining their long necks, doing a complex dance like mating cobras.

"Well if it's not fighting what are they doing?" Lex wanted to know. "Are they making babies?"

"That's right," Grant said, relieved.

"I thought so," Lex nodded.

Up ahead, Grant could see what he thought was an entrance to the maintenance tunnels. Hopefully, those would offer safe passage back to the visitor center.

* * *

Muldoon stopped the jeep and jumped out. He walked to the maintenance shed. Harding was right behind him. Muldoon opened the door and went in. It was pitch black inside, but he heard footsteps.

Harding grabbed his flashlight and turned it on. The beam illuminated the darkness. Harding moved the light around. "You hear the footsteps," he said. "But where are they?"

Harding shone his light down a hallway. At the end of the hall, a pair of glowing eyes peered at them. Then the eyes vanished.

"I don't like this," Harding said.

Muldoon stepped forward with his gun ready. "Hello?" he called. "Is anyone there?"

There was no answer. "Let's get out of here," Harding said.

Muldoon paused before nodding. They left the shed and got in the jeep. "We can't put the park back in order until those things are dead," he said. He picked up his radio. "Arnold?"

There was no reply.

"Arnold?"

* * *

Grant found a flashlight which made their journey through the maintenance tunnels easier. He hoped that they wouldn't get lost down here…

"Rats!" Lex shrieked as frightened rodents ran past their feet, ignoring the large humans as they fled from something behind them. This made Grant uneasy.

"Do you hear that?" Tim whispered.

Grant listened. It was silent, except for their breathing, rodents squeaking, and… a clicking sound that was quickly growing louder. Then there was another sound. Panicked footsteps.

Grant turned around and his flashlight revealed two maintenance workers running toward then. "Run!" one of them screamed as they ran past. "They're coming!"

A moment later Grant saw what they were running from. Creatures with glowing eyes.

Tim and Lex were already running. Grant was soon fleeing as well, trying to block out that clicking sound that was louder than ever. He didn't get a good look at the dinosaurs, but he didn't care to try to identify them at the moment. All he could do was run…

* * *

Arnold kicked out with his feet hoping to land a hit to the Troodon. But the creature easily dodged his kicks. It jumped on him. It pushed Arnold's face into the carpet. He felt the razor sharp claws in his skin and he screamed for aid.

Suddenly the weight on his back vanished. Someone pulled him to his feet and began pulling him along.

Everything ran out of the control room. Gennaro slammed the door shut behind them.

Everyone took a moment to catch their breaths. "Is everyone here?" Ellie asked hoarsely.

"Regis," Gennaro said. "Where's Regis?"

Within the control room, there came a deathly scream.

There was a sickly silence. Then Gennaro said, "I'll go warn Harding," and took off running down the hallway.

* * *

Nima was caught off guard when without warning she was pushed out of the jeep by Dodgson. She cursed as she struck the ground rolling. She picked herself up, but Dodgson had kept driving away. With the canister.

"Dammit!" Nima swore angrily. "Dodgson, you back-stabbing hijo de puta!"

Soon the jeep and Dodgson were out of sight. Nima considered her options. She knew she probably wouldn't last long out here. She could try going after Dodgson or head back to the visitor center. The visitor center was closer and the people there would have medicine and weapons. And… Nima had tried not to think about it too much, but with Nedry dead, nobody was going to turn on the power back on. The people here were trapped and threatened by the escaped dinosaurs. Nima felt bad about all the people that might die because of Dodgson's schemes. And maybe she, with her knowledge of the island and resourcefulness, could give them a better shot at surviving. Even if she would end up in prison, she could at least redeem herself for working with Dodgson. She didn't want anyone else to die and even if she imprisoned she could still take Dodgson down with her. He expected her to die so that they wouldn't trace her to Biosyn. But Nima could still make sure that he got what he had coming, even if he escaped the island with the embryos.

* * *

Muldoon and Harding drove down the road quickly. They were surrounded on both sides by dense foliage. Literally anything could be hiding in there, Harding thought.

He was worried that, despite his callings, Arnold still hadn't answered the radio. Could something have happened to them?

The visitor center came into view. They stopped the car, and both men got out and started running up the steps.

* * *

Grant held Lex's hand with one hand, and the flashlight with the other as he, Lex and Tim ran at full tilt through the maintenance shed. Behind them, their pursuers let out vicious shrieks and terrifying whistles. Grant had no idea what they were, some kind of small raptor-like animal maybe, but for once he didn't want to find out. There was something wrong about them, something unnatural.

He knew they were right behind them. They were going to get caught. But then he saw something ahead: a doorknob, in the gleam of the flashlight. He forced his limbs to pump faster; he reached for the doorknob; his fingers closed around it; he twisted it and flung open the door, dragging himself and the kids through, turning and kicking it shut after them.

The creatures roared and pounded on the door in an attempt to break it down, but the door was strong, thank goodness. Grant took a moment to catch his breath. He heard crying. Took him a second to realize that it was coming from him.

* * *

The group decided to head to the safety bunker. Hammond, Ellie, Wu, an injured Arnold, and Jess walked down the long corridor.

"Where's the bunker, again?" Ellie asked.

"It's just through this door," Wu said, as he helped Arnold walk.

Ellie opened the door and herded her companions into the room. She closed the door after them.

They set Arnold down on a table and Wu got to work. He glanced at Ellie. "Laura's still out there somewhere."

Ellie nodded. "And Gennaro."

* * *

Muldoon and Harding entered the dark visitor center.

"Hello?" Harding called out. "Wu? Arnold? Sorkin? Anybody?"

Silence.

"They must have shut down the systems," Muldoon realized. "Until they reset the power, they'll probably stay in the safety bunker."

Harding nodded, comforted that his daughter is probably there.

Then, from the dark shadows, came an eerie clicking sound.

"Is that?" Harding asked.

"Yep," Muldoon nodded, tightening his grip on his gun.

Then there was a scream. A human scream.

"Mr. Gennaro," Harding realized.

"Come on!" Muldoon urged, rushing to the rescue of the screaming lawyer. They hoped that they wouldn't be too late.

* * *

In the safety bunker, Hammond was trying to remain optimistic.

"This is just a delay," he reassured the others. "All major theme parks have delays. When Disneyland first opened, nothing worked."

"But John," a wounded Malcolm interrupted as Ellie tended to him, "when Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists."

"My dad's okay, right?" Jess asked Wu, who was treating Arnold's injuries. She was worried and afraid.

"He's with Muldoon," Wu pointed out. "If there's anyone that can keep your father safe, it's him. Everything's going to be fine."

Jess smiled a little at this. Malcolm let her have this, but he knew that the chances any of them would make it off this island alive were very slim.

* * *

Harding and Muldoon rounded a corner and came face-to-face with the most terrifying creature either of them had ever seen. It was a squat, longish theropod with a long, slender tail and two humongous glowing eyes. The creature was crouched in an attack position, and before either man could react, it leaped forward and tackled Harding to the ground.

* * *

Donald Gennaro struggled on the ground as another Troodon bit into this calf. He screamed and shook his leg, attempting to free himself, but the monster had an iron grip. Gennaro reached forward and grabbed a lead pipe. He swung the pipe down on the Troodon's head. The creature released him. Gennaro jumped to his feet and ran. There was nowhere to go. Wait, there - a pipe. A big, steel pipe. He ran for it, and climbed into it. He felt more pain on his calf as the Troodon bit him again. The Troodon began to pull him back out of the pipe…

* * *

Muldoon's gun went off twice. The first bullet struck the creature's side. The second struck the brain. The dinosaur fell to the ground with a dying hiss and Muldoon helped Harding up. The vet was shaking.

"Are you alright?" Muldoon asked.

"Yes," Harding nodded, trying to control himself. "Luckily the thing didn't bite me."

"I may have made things worse though," Muldoon realized in horror.

"How?" Harding asked.

He was answered by what sounded like angry clicking in the dark. The other creatures had heard the gunshots. They had heard the dying scream of one of their own. And now they were coming for revenge. The clicking grew louder as the things came closer…

* * *

Gennaro suddenly felt the Troodon release him and run off after they both heard two gunshots go off. Gennaro climbed back into the pipe, taking advantage of the opportunity. He winced in pain. Because of the bite on his calf he doubted that he would be going anywhere soon…

* * *

John, Trey, Grant, Tim, and Lex listened to the creatures pounding against the door. Eventually, the pounding stopped and Grant could hear the creatures hissing and clicking at each other. Talking. Then there was silence. They had left, perhaps having found out about easier prey…

"Are they gone?" Lex whimpered.

"Maybe," Grant told the others. "But we should wait a little, just to make sure."

Or maybe they should leave now before they decided to come back. Grant didn't know.

"Do you two know what type of dinosaur that was?" he asked the maintenance workers that were hiding with them.

They shook their heads. They had no idea what those things were. And neither did Grant.

* * *

"Come on," Muldoon said gruffly. He and Harding continued down the hallway.

"Gennaro!" Muldoon called loudly. "Gennaro!"

Harding shone his flashlight around for any sign of the lawyer.

"Gennaro!" Muldoon hollered.

"Here!" The voice came from the left. Harding and Muldoon stampeded down the hall. "Where are you?" Muldoon called.

They heard a faint rustling. Harding shone his light in the direction the sound was coming from. He saw a pair of legs crawling out of a big steel pipe.

"Gennaro!" Harding said with relief. He helped Gennaro out of the pipe. He was alive, but he didn't look well.

"You're bitten." Muldoon said, gesturing to Gennaro's leg. The pant leg was shredded, and soaked in blood. Gennaro nodded feebly. "It was one of those things," he said.

"What were you doing way out here, anyway?" Harding asked him.

"Looking for you," Gennaro replied.

Muldoon shook his head; "Well, you found us, so congratulations. Come on, let's find the others."

"They should be in the security bunker," Gennaro told them. Harding put his arm around the lawyer's shoulders and helped him walk. In the distance, he heard more of those terrible clicks.

"They'll be hunting us," Muldoon said. He cocked his rifle. He looked at Harding. "Move as fast as you can. I'll cover you."

Harding nodded and started helping Gennaro toward the security bunker. Muldoon stood between them and the Troodon, ears listening closely for any movement in the dark. He listened to Harding and Gennaro's footsteps as the two of them moved farther away from the danger. Muldoon's hands were on his gun, ready. He wasn't scared. The only thing that mattered to him was the safety of the survivors and fewer Troodon would greatly increase their chances of getting off this island alive. If this was Muldoon's last stand, so be it. He wasn't going down without a fight.

Then he heard it. A click. And in the shadows a pair of eyes lit up. "There you are…" Muldoon said, standing defiantly. Then he heard another click. A different type of click. From behind him.

BAM!

Muldoon fell forward, dropping his gun. A bullet passed through his side and he crashed onto the ground, cursing in pain. The pair of eyes in the dark vanished… but it would be back.

Muldoon looked back to see who had shot him… it was Dr. Laura Sorkin holding a handgun.

"Laura! What the hell!?"

"Apologies, Robert," Sorkin told him, kicking his gun away while keeping her gun trained on Muldoon. "But you were about to hurt my animals. You already killed one."

"I'm protecting people!"

"These animals deserve your protection more. You attempted to exterminate them before and they would have become extinct once again if I hadn't saved them."

"You endangered everybody on this island!"

"You, Wu, Hammond, and everyone else brought this down on yourselves. You bring these creatures back into the world after 65 million years and instead of preserving them you choose to exploit them for your own selfish desires. There was so much we could have learned… but instead you built a theme park."

"This is wrong, Laura…"

"It's unfortunate, but Hammond left me no choice. I wish I didn't have to do this, but this is the consequence of your blindness."

"Are you going to kill me? Become a murderer?"

"Of course not. I'll just let nature take its course… just as it should."

Muldoon heard it. Clicks. They were coming.

"As Ian Malcolm put it, life found a way," Sorkin said before running off.

Muldoon tried reaching for his gun, but the pain prevented him from going far. The clicks were louder, closer. Eyes appeared in the dark. The Troodon pack was advancing on their fallen prey, going in for the kill.

Muldoon screamed in pain until only the Troodon could be heard.

* * *

**Originally this iteration was going to be longer, but I felt like this scene was the perfect note to end on. It's unfortunate what happened to Muldoon, but I felt like it was a necessary scene for Sorkin. Poor Muldoon just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, which happens in these types of storytelling games. This situation is probably even deadlier than in the novel and the movie thanks to the presence of the Troodon and Sorkin going rogue. I also want to note that Arnold realizing that his cigarettes were missing is a reference to how Jess is k****leptomaniac in "Jurassic Park: The Game." She stole Arnold's cigarettes just like she stole Sorkin's cigarettes in the Telltale game, though I wasn't able to follow up on it due to how the storytelling game progressed after that scene. The Troodon might be one of my favorite elements of this experience, since it was fun putting them in the events of the novel/film and they genuinely terrify me. I also like adding Sorkin into the mix, since she actually gets to interact with Hammond and Wu on-screen while we only heard her complaints in the Telltale game. Shooting Muldoon was important for the direction her character is heading and you can expect more from her in the next few iterations...**


	6. Sixth Iteration

**After this, only one iteration is left! Tensions are high and things are going to get worse before they get better! Enjoy!**

* * *

**Sixth Iteration**

"_System recovery may prove impossible."_

-IAN MALCOLM

Harding and Gennaro stumbled toward the security bunker. When they were just a few feet away, the door flung open from the inside. Henry Wu stood in the doorway, waving them on.

Harding heard Muldoon's screams and looked back. "He's dying!" He passed Gennaro off to Wu, then turned and started running back the way he had come.

"Wait!" Wu shouted after him.

Harding just kept running.

Wu brought Gennaro inside. Ellie appeared beside him. "Here, let me help you." They laid Gennaro down on a table. "Three of us are injured now," Ellie commented. "Where's Harding? I thought I heard him."

Wu pointed to the door. "He's going to help Muldoon."

"Alone?" Ellie said in surprise.

"Yeah."

Ellie hesitated for a moment, then bent down to tie her laces.

"Uh… what are you doing?" Wu demanded.

"I won't let him go alone," Ellie said.

"You don't have any training, any experience with these animals…"

Ellie just gave him a dirty look. She ran to one of the shelves and grabbed a big rifle. She loaded it up and then went to the door, pausing to glance back at Wu. "You coming or not?"

Wu held her gaze for a moment, then looked down at the ground.

"I figured," Ellie said. She opened the door and went out, slamming the door behind her.

* * *

"This place smells," Lex said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"I think we're in the sewage system somewhere," John said, looking around.

"Here." Trey unclipped a flashlight from his belt and turned it on. He shone the beam around. The room they were in was small, nothing of interest. Behind them, though, was another tunnel.

"This might lead us back to the park," Trey theorized.

"Are you sure?" Grant asked.

Trey nodded. "Yeah, pretty sure."

"But what if there are more dinosaurs in there?" Lex asked in a frightened voice. Grant picked her up and held her. "Don't worry," he said. He looked at the two maintenance workers. "I don't think we have many other options. What do you say?"

John and Trey exchanged a look. "Beats just standing here," John said at last.

"Alright. Then let's go."

After a few minutes of uncomfortable darkness and eerie silence, Grant found a door leading out of the tunnels and into the light.

"Finally!" Trey said, relieved.

"Where are we?" Tim asked.

Grant didn't recognize the area, but John did. "Looks like we're close to the visitor center. This path should take us past the raptor paddock and to the garages."

"More walking?" Lex moaned.

"Don't worry, we're almost there," Grant reassured her.

The five survivors began the journey back to the visitor center, until they noticed somebody approaching. A man who was wounded, dirty, and looked quite shocked. Grant recognized him.

"Regis?"

When Ed Regis saw Grant with the kids, he smiled. Forgetting his own injuries, he ran forward. "Dr. Grant! Tim! Lex! Thank God you're-"

Grant's fist collided with Regis' jaw and Regis hit the dirt.

"Ow…" Regis managed to say. "I deserved that, didn't I?"

"Yep," Tim said, glaring.

"What? What did you deserve?" John asked in confusion.

"On the road, when the T-Rex attacked, he ran and left the kids behind," Grant explained. He was upset with the public relations manager, but still glad to see him alive.

"I'm sorry," Regis said. He was red with shame.

Grant sighed. "What's done is done. Now, where are the others?" he asked Regis.

"I think they're in the security bunker," Regis replied.

"Then let's move."

All six of them started walking down the road. "I have an idea," Regis said. "Let's go to the garage and get a car. That'll be faster, and safer." He looked to Grant for his approval. Grant thought for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. Sounds good."

They headed off down a different path toward the garage.

* * *

Harding ran back into the visitor center, his gun at the ready. He heard the clicking in the background. Following it, he ended up back in the main room, darkness on all sides. He began to feel very scared.

He spotted something out of the corner of his eye. He turned towards it. His stomach dropped; it was a blood drag. Something had been dragged across the floor, something large, about the size of Muldoon…

"Muldoon?" Harding called cautiously into the darkness. "Muldoon? Where are you?"

He heard footsteps running behind him, and for a moment he thought it was Muldoon. Then Ellie emerged from the shadows, a rifle in her arms. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Helping you," Ellie replied. "What are we up against?"

Harding looked at the blood drag. "I'm not sure."

* * *

While walking to the garages, they passed by the Velociraptor enclosure. Grant slowed down.

"What is it?" Regis asked.

Grant pointed to a hole in the fence that surrounded the raptor pen. The metal was twisted, as if gnawed, the hole is large enough for an animal to slip through.

"Oh my God," Regis realized in horror. "Aw, God. The shutdown must have turned off all the fences. Even Nedry knew better than to mess with the raptor fence…"

Grant squatted near the hole, looking at the ground. He saw sets of footprints and followed them with his eyes. The footprints headed off in different directions, but all in the jungle foliage on either side of them.

* * *

"My dad was here?" Jess asked Wu as the scientist tended to Gennaro.

"Briefly," Wu nodded. "He ran off to get Muldoon."

"He didn't even check to see if I was okay," Jess said, looking down.

Malcolm was watching and he decided to try to cheer Jess up. "Your dad does care if you're alright, Jess. I don't know him well, but I do know is that he values your safety more than anything else. He loves you and right now he's fighting to get you a way off this island."

Jess smiled. "Yeah, I know. And every second counts, right?"

"Exactly. When all this is over I promise that you two you will spend lots of time together."

"Do you have any kids, Dr. Malcolm?"

"Yeah, a few from previous marriages."

"So are you married right now?"

"Not currently. Why? No offense, but I'm a bit old for you." He gave a teasing smile and she laughed a little.

"No, no. I was just thinking of my sister, Sarah. I think she would like you."

Malcolm sighed. "Now's not the time to be thinking about setting me up with your sister."

Jess shrugged. "It'll give you something to look forward to when all this is over. I mean, Dr. Sattler is obviously with Dr. Grant."

"What?"

"I saw those looks you gave her while we were with the sick Stegosaurus."

"You're pretty smart, aren't you?"

"Yep."

"So, what can you tell me about Sarah?" Malcolm asked, deciding that this was a good way to get Jess' mind off her father.

Jess grinned and began explaining that her sister was a scientist that specializes in animal behavior…

* * *

Harding and Ellie followed the blood drag as far as they could.

"Those things dragged him into the vents." Harding said the words with a dull voice. He could just imagine Muldoon, struggling, as a thousand tiny teeth dragged him into that tiny space…

"Can we get him?" Ellie asked.

Harding was shaking his head. It was impossible. The network was too vast, too confused. "He could be anywhere in there. Maybe they dragged him into another room, but maybe they just left him in the vents somewhere. If he's even alive."

"We can't just leave him," Ellie said.

"You're right." Harding closed his eyes, thought for a moment. "The power. If we can get the power back on, we'll be able to find Muldoon."

"Then let's get the power back on."

"That's Arnold's department."

The two of them went back to the bunker. Jess ran and hugged Harding. He hugged her back. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm fine," he replied.

"Where's Muldoon?" Hammond asked with concern.

"Not sure," Harding replied. "We think the Troodons got him and dragged him into the vents."

His words hung in the air for a few moments. Hammond's face drained of color, while Wu just appeared shocked.

"I don't understand," Malcolm said with a cough. "Why would they do that?"

"I… wish I knew," Harding answered. "Those things are… odd. I'm not sure any of us knows why they do the things they do."

"I know someone who might," Wu said.

"Right, Laura. Where is she, anyway?"

"Not sure," Wu said. "She never made it to the bunker. I don't know what happened to her."

"Well, let's hope she turns up. In the meantime, we have to get the power back on. It might be our only way of rescuing Muldoon, if he's still alive," Harding said. He looked to Arnold.

Arnold seemed okay. He had a bandage on his arm covering the bite mark, and Wu had given him the proper medication to stave off the deadly virus inflicted upon him by the Troodon. He was ruffled, but seemed functional for the most part. "Yeah, yeah," he said. "We have to get the power on. The only way I know how to do that is to manually reboot the system from the maintenance shed. I can't speak for anyone else, but I don't really feel up to going back out there, though."

"Well, someone has to." Harding looked around at the faces. Gennaro and Malcolm were too injured. Arnold was too valuable. Wu was the only one besides Arnold who knew how to work the computers. Hammond couldn't do it, and he would never allow Jessie to do it. That left… him. And Ellie.

He sighed. "Well… I guess I'm automatically nominated."

"No, Dad!" Jess said. "Those things are still out there."

"Jess." Harding grabbed his daughter by the shoulders. "There's no-one else."

Jess began to tremble. She scowled up at her father. "No!"

"Jessie." That was Malcolm. He pushed himself up onto his elbow and spoke in a calm voice. "We're all going to die if we can't get the power back. Your father can do this. I know he can."

* * *

"Come on," Grant said, rising to his feet. "How much farther to the garage?"

"Not far," John replied. "Just another minute or so."

They resumed walking, keeping a careful eye on their surroundings.

Regis gasped. Grant wheeled around. "What?"

Regis pointed. The branches. They were shaking. There was something in there.

Grant grabbed the kid's hands and started to run. The others followed. Grant saw the roof of the garage poking out through the trees. They were almost there!

"Come on!" he shouted.

Trey sprinted ahead and opened the door for them and they all ran inside. Panting, Grant crashed against the wall. "Good running," he told the kids.

Trey pulled out his flashlight and illuminated the interior. The garage was a vast space, full of all kinds of vehicles: maintenance, jeeps, Land Cruisers. Regis led them toward a jeep and got behind the wheel. Everyone packed in around him. Regis started the car. The engine rumbled to life and the headlights flicked on.

…Illuminating the Velociraptor standing just five yards in front of them!

* * *

In the bunker, one of the handheld radios suddenly came to life.

"Hey, is anyone there?" a woman's voiced asked. "Can anybody hear me?"

Harding recognized the voice and he snatched up the radio. "Nima, is that you?"

"Yeah, I found some guy's radio. He won't be needing it in the state I found him in. Look, I want to help."

"What?" Harding asked, surprised.

"I can't change what I did," Nima admitted. "If I go to prison after this, so be it. But I can't let innocent people die. I think I could give you a better shot at survival and I want to make up for what I did. I don't want anyone else to die, so tell me what I can do to help out."

Harding looked around at the others. "Should we trust her?"

"I don't think we have a choice," Wu decided. "She might be useful and we need to take any aid we can get at this point."

Harding nodded. "Alright, Nima. We're counting on you. We need to turn the power back on. The only way to do that is to manually reboot the system from the maintenance shed. Give me your location and we'll walk you through the process."

Jess was relieved that her father wouldn't be going back out there and hoped that Nima would be able to help them in this time of need.

* * *

"I'm just outside the big building with the dome," Nima reported.

"That's the visitor center," Harding told her. "Do you see a little gravel path leading off into the trees?"

Nima scanned the area. "Yes, I see it."

"The maintenance shed is down that path."

"Okay. Here I go."

Nima started walking down the gravel path.

* * *

Regis slammed his foot down on the gas and the jeep shot forward. Right toward the raptor. At the last possible second, the raptor jumped clear and the jeep raced past it. Grant looked back. The raptor turned around and started chasing them!

"Faster!" Grant shouted.

The big garage door opened up before them like the maw of a huge beast. Grant looked back once more. The raptor was gaining on them.

The jeep sped through the door. The raptor followed them right out. "She's not giving up!" John said. "I hope you know some moves, Regis."

Regis smiled hysterically.

* * *

Dodgson's jeep came to a halt. He swore, realizing that he had run out of gas. Getting out, he began walking the rest of the way to the docks, scanning the surrounding jungle for threats while he went down the dirt road. He felt more vulnerable, like every noise could be a carnivorous dinosaur ready to pounce and devour him whole.

Finally, he could see the docks. Filled with relief, he ran the rest of the way and was delighted when he saw that there was a boat there. What luck!

As he stepped into view, several mercenaries pointed their guns as Dodgson, who immediately raised his hands to show that he was unarmed with the exception of a can of shaving cream.

"Lewis?" one of the men asked. Dodgson recognized the man and he relaxed. The man ordered the mercenaries to lower their weapons.

"Thank God," Dodgson grinned. "It's good to see you, Howard."

Dodgson gave the other man a hug, thankful to see a friendly face and a way off this damn island.

"What the hell happened out there, Lewis?" Howard King asked.

"It's a long story," Dodgson explained. "Don't bother waiting for anyone else. Dennis, Bob, Miles, and Nima are dead. I'm the only one who survived."

"Jesus," King said, shocked. "Let's get you out of here."

"First, do you have any water?" Dodgson asked. King nodded and he gave Dodgson his canteen. Dodgson quickly emptied it. "Thanks."

"No problem."

Dodgson, King, and the mercenaries boarded their boat and were soon heading away from Isla Nublar. Dodgson laughed as they left the island behind. It was over. He had won. He opened the can of shaving scream, deciding to check on the embryos…

His smile fell.

The canister was empty. The embryos had been removed. Despite everything, Dodgson had nothing to show for his work. All of that was for nothing. It was indeed over, but he had still lost.

"NOOO!" Dodgson screamed in anger as he headed back toward the mainland… to face the consequences of his failure…

* * *

Wu listened to Harding instruct Nima over the radio. He wondered if Nima still had the canister. Or if she knew that he had found out that the canister was a container for the embryos Nedry had stolen. Or if she knew he had returned the embryos to where they belonged, in his possession.

It didn't matter now, Wu decided. Not when there were lives at stake. Nima would be held responsible later. But at the moment they had to work together if they were to survive.

* * *

"I see the shed." Nima was standing on the gravel path, looking at the squat white building in front of her. She could hear a gentle hum emanating from somewhere inside.

"Excellent. Great work, Nima," Harding congratulated over the radio. "Now, just go inside and I'll talk you through the rest."

Nima approached the shed. She opened the door and peered within. It was pitch-black. Nima hesitated; she was unwilling to walk straight into the darkness.

"Are you inside the shed yet?" Harding's voice nagged.

"It's very dark," Nima told him.

"Yes. Well, hmm. Try, uh, try propping the door open with something," Harding suggested.

Nima scanned the ground. There was a stick about ten yards away. She went over and got it and brought it back. She opened the door and put the stick on the ground. The door closed on the stick. The remaining gap allowed for sunlight to seep into the dark shed.

"Okay, here I go," Nima said, and went in.

Nima went toward the catwalk and walked along the corrugated metal. Up ahead was the stairway leading down to the generators. Another ten yards.

Darkness. The light shining through the gap was gone.

Nima looked back to the door and saw that the light was blocked by the body of a Velociraptor. The animal bent over, and carefully sniffed the stick she had propped the door open with.

* * *

The radio had gone silent.

"Nima?" Harding asked. "Nima, are you there? Did something happen?"

No response.

"What now?" Wu asked.

Harding didn't know. They had run out of options.

* * *

Nima swore as she began backing away from the animal. The animal lifted her snout, and let out a long, reptilian hiss. The hairs on the back of Nima's neck stood on end. Quickly, she scanned her surroundings for a weapon.

The raptor took a delicate step forward. Nima turned and ran down the staircase. She lost her footing and fell forward. She stuck out her arms to catch herself and landed heavily on her right hand. Pain seared through her hand and she screamed. Wrist! Her wrist was broken! Blinking away tears, Nima stood and continued to run, blind and disoriented, having no idea of where she was going. That was when she realized - the animal wasn't following her. She turned, just to be sure. No. The animal wasn't following. She was just standing in the doorway. Staring at her. Why? What was she waiting for?

That was when she heard the clicks.

* * *

Regis took the corner fast. The tires skidded in the soft earth. Beside him, Grant swore. "You have to slow down."

Regis shook his head. "Not a chance!" He looked in the rear-view mirror. The raptor was still chasing them. She was fixated on them, jaws parted in a terrifying grin. The sight of it made Regis' stomach turn.

"Regis!" Grant yelled. "You have to slow down!"

They took another corner, sharp. The tires skidded. Regis' stomach flipped as the tires lost traction and the jeep flipped over onto its side. Regis remembered squeezing his eyes shut; then there was just tremendous, shuddering pain and final blackness.

* * *

Nima recognized those clicks and her eyes widened in horror. No. Not again…

She found herself shaking in fear at the memory of the creatures that bit her. They were here. Inside the shed. With her.

Nima tried to focus and she considered her options. If she left the shed, the raptor would kill her. If she stayed in the shed, the Troodon would get her. She liked neither outcome.

Then a pair of eyes lit up the dark and Nima ran. Eventually, she found herself at the end of a corridor. She slammed a mesh door shut behind her, but she knew that it would not keep them away from her for long. Behind the mesh several pairs of eyes watched her curiously, unseen Troodon clicking at each other.

Nima desperately looked around for an escape, but she had trapped herself in the small space. It was difficult to make out anything in the blackness except for a gray box…

Nima realized what the gray box was and couldn't believe her luck. She fumbled in the dark for her radio.

"Harding! Harding!"

"Nima, there you are? We were worried wh-"

"Shut up and listen to me! I don't have much time! I found a big, gray box with cable terminating from it and I think it says High Voltage though it's hard to tell."

"That's great! Open it!"

Nima threw open the box, revealing a vast array of breakers and switches inside. "Now what?"

"Well, before you throw the main switch by hand, you have to pump up the primer handle to give you a charge. It's a large, flat, gray-"

"I found it!" Nima told him. She pumped the gray handle, which was sluggish. Above it, a small white indicator went from 'discharged' to 'charged'. Nima slammed the gray lever back into position.

"Alright, it's charged," Nima said, trying to ignore the clicking sounds behind her.

"Right!" Harding said over the radio. "Now, under the words 'contact position' there's a round green button that says 'push to close!' Push it!"

Nima did. The 'contact position' light went over to 'closed' and lights started to go on all over the panel. Nima watched as the column of twelve white indicator lights flashed on the control panel. They were clearly labeled, each one for a different area of the park.

"Now Nima, the red buttons turn on the individual park systems," Harding explained. "Switch them on."

As Nima punched the buttons, they light up. Behind her, she heard the sounds of the mesh door being torn apart, but she tried to stay calm.

She pushed the final button and the fluorescent lights in the maintenance shed came on. When she turned around, the mesh was completely destroyed, but the Troodon were nowhere to be seen. They had fled from the lights. Nima gave a sigh of relief.

"I did it, Harding!" she said into the radio. "I think we're back in business!"

Then she heard something that made her blood freeze. The shriek of a Velociraptor.

* * *

"Harding, can you promise me something?" Harding heard Nima over the radio.

"Is something wrong, Nima? What happened?"

"I have a daughter on the mainland," Nima explained quickly. "Her name is Atlanta Cruz. She's staying in a clinic in the fishing village Bahia Anasco with a nurse named Elena Morales. Atlanta is fourteen. I don't want her working for local cartels, living on the streets, or dealing drugs. Promise me that you'll find and take care of her."

"Nima, what is go-"

"Promise me, Harding!"

"Y-yes, I promise."

"Thank you."

"Nima, are you in trouble?"

"I'm sorry…"

Gerry then heard something else over the radio. A raptor shrieking. Followed by Nima screaming. Gerry quickly turned the radio off so the others wouldn't have to heard the rest.

Everyone was silent. Gerry felt tears run down his cheeks. He barely knew Nima, but she had just sacrificed herself for them. She didn't deserve to die like that.

But he could still honor her sacrifice by calling the mainland for help… and keeping his promise.

* * *

In the darkness, the Velociraptor feasted on her latest kill, savoring the delicious human meat. All of a sudden, she jerked her head up, having heard a strange sound. She let out a long, low hiss. Her keen scent had picked something up; something she didn't like. The raptor stood to her full height and let out a fearsome screech.

The raptor's shrieks were answered by several clicks. In the shadows, several eyes lit up the darkness. The raptor hissed and pulled her kill away from the eyes so that she could enjoy her meal in peace.

* * *

Grant started dragging Regis away from the crash. The raptor was ignoring them and was already feeding off somebody, though he couldn't tell who. It must have been one of the maintenance workers. The raptor hissed at the humans trying to get away, but then went back to her kill.

Tim and Lex were crying, terrified.

"Come on," Grant told them. "We have to get out of here."

The kids nodded and followed, putting distance between them and the feeding raptor.

It wasn't far to the visitor center. Grant ran as fast as he could, but it was difficult considering he had an unconscious man laying across his back.

"Wait!" the shout came from behind. Grant turned. It was Trey. The worker was limping after them, his face aghast. "It's eating him," he sputtered. "It's eating John."

"No time for that," Grant said. "Run!"

The kids had reached the visitor center by now. Grant followed them, with Trey right behind him. They walked up the marble steps and through the huge doors. Trey slammed them shut behind him. Grant put Regis down and collapsed, breathless, shaking, and unable to believe that they had made it. They should all be dead right now…

"Let's all just rest a minute," Grant puffed. No one complained.

* * *

"Did she do it?" Jess asked.

Harding nodded, grave. "Yes, she did it."

"Now we can get the power on," Arnold said.

Harding nodded again. "I'll take you to the computer room," he said. He looked around at the other faces. "I could use some backup."

"I'll go with you," Wu volunteered.

"No," Arnold told him. "If something happens to me, you're the only other person here who knows how to run the computer."

"Not necessarily." The voice came from the back. It was Malcolm. The mathematician struggled to sit up.

"You know how to run the system?" Harding asked in surprise.

"Well, I know about computers. This particular system, no. I'm just saying that if something happens, I might be of assistance," Malcolm explained.

"Thank you. All the same, I think Wu had better stay here," Arnold said.

"Then I'll go with you," Ellie volunteered.

Harding smiled, "Sure. Thanks."

"What about me?" That was Gennaro. "I might have a busted leg but I'm still functional."

"I need you to stay here. And take care of my daughter," Harding said.

Gennaro pondered this for a moment, and then gave a small, firm nod.

* * *

Grant, Tim, Lex, and Trey entered a restaurant while carrying the unconscious Regis. Grant carefully set Regis down in a chair at one of the tables.

"I'm going to find the others and get a doctor," Grant decided. "Trey, will you look after Regis and the kids?"

"Yes," Trey nodded.

"Thank you." Grant paused for a second, as if debating something. "I'll be back soon, guys. I promise."

He left. As he goes across the lobby of the visitor center, they could see his silhouette, moving through a translucent mural that depicts dinosaurs in various natural settings. It's quiet for a second as Lex and Tim just looked at Trey awkwardly.

Trey went across the room, to an all-you-can-eat table on the other side, and quickly piled some food on a tray. He brought it back to the table. "Here. You kids must be starving."

Lex dug in, munching on veggies, grabbing food with two hands. Tim enjoyed his food, too.

Lex came up with a spoonful of lime Jell-O from a plastic dinosaur egg cup - but her hand froze halfway to her mouth.

Tim looked up, and saw the expression on her face. She was staring over his shoulder, eyes wide, the Jell-O quivering in her shaking hands.

"What?"

Tim turned around. Behind him, one of the silhouettes on the mural is a raptor, in a hunting pose.

While they stared, the silhouette of a real raptor moved out from behind it and creeped forward, in the lobby of the visitor center.

* * *

Harding, Arnold and Ellie left the bunker and started walking to the visitor center. Harding kept his eyes trained on his surroundings at all times.

"Hey!" Arnold said. "Who's that?"

A man was coming out of the visitor center.

"Alan!" Ellie cried. She ran toward Grant. She jumped into his arms and they stood there for a while, hugging.

"Are you alright, Dr. Grant?" Harding asked.

Grant let go of Ellie and turned to Harding, "Yes, I'm alright."

"And the kids?"

"In there." Grant pointed to the visitor center. "Come on, we should go in. It's not a good idea to be out in the open."

They began walking to the visitor center. "Did you get the power back yet?" Grant asked.

Harding shook his head. "Not yet. We were just about to do that, though."

They walked up the marble steps and pushed open the doors.

"I left the kids and Regis in the dining room with Trey," Grant said.

"Who's Trey?" Ellie asked.

"A workman."

They opened another door that led to the dining room. It was empty.

"What the?" Grant said. "I told them to stay right here…"

In the distance, someone screamed.

"Oh no," Grant breathed.

Harding cocked his gun. "Come on! Ellie, you take Arnold to the control room. Grant and I will rescue the kids." He started running, not waiting to see if they would follow his orders.

* * *

The leathery reptile skin touched Tim's face, the claws tore his shirt, and Tim fell onto his back, shrieking in fright.

"Timmy!" Lex yelled.

Tim scrambled to his feet again. The baby Velociraptor perched on his shoulder, chirping and squeaking in panic. Tim, Lex, and Trey were in a nursery. They had been forced to leave the unconscious Regis behind. There were toys on the floor: a rolling yellow ball, a doll, a plastic rattle.

"It's the baby raptor," Lex said, pointing to the animal gripping Tim's shoulder.

The little raptor burrowed her head into Tim's neck. The poor thing was probably starving, Tim thought.

Lex came closer and the baby hopped onto her shoulder. She rubbed against her neck. "Why is it  
doing that?" she asked. "Is she scared?"

"Must be," Trey said.

Lex passed the raptor to Trey. The baby was chirping and squeaking, and hopping up and down on his shoulder excitedly. She kept looking around, head moving quickly. No doubt about it, the little thing was worked up and-

"Trey," Lex whispered.

The door to the hallway hadn't closed behind them after they entered the nursery. Adult Velociraptors were coming through. First one, then a second one.

Clearly agitated, the baby chirped and bounced on Trey's shoulder. Trey knew they had to get away. The raptors began to spread apart, fanning out in the hallway to surround the humans. Their heads began to duck rhythmically. They were going to attack. Suddenly, they backed away, hearing a voice.

"If I could have your attention, please," announced a familiar voice. "I'm John Hammond, and I'd like to share a few ideas with you about Jurassic Park. What it all means. So if you would bear with me for a moment…"

As the raptors left Trey found another door and went through, pulling the kids and the baby raptor after him.

The raptors silently entered an empty auditorium. Hammond was projected on screen.

"Oh, I know you're eager to see all the marvels that Jurassic Park has in store for you. So I will be brief. You should realize, first of all, that what you are about to see is entirely authentic. Nothing has been made up; these are real dinosaurs, ladies and-"

Regis was in the projection booth, surrounded by electronic equipment. He started the show as a distraction to save the kids after regaining consciousness. The door to the booth slammed open and the raptors came in, snarling.

"-gentlemen. Through the wonders of modern genetic science, you experience them just as they were, a hundred million years ago, when these magnificent creatures ruled the planet, long before the arrival of mere, puny man."

Regis started to scream.

"And what creatures they are! Some might say they are the very perfection of God's creation, but certainly there has been nothing since to compare to them-"

The screen blurred.

"Welcome to Jurassic Park! We hope you will enjoy your stay here…"

Regis' screams eventually died down.

* * *

Grant and Harding burst into the auditorium. Grant could faintly hear the sound of crunching bones coming from behind a stage.

Suddenly, a Velociraptor jumped out from behind the stage and hissed at them. Grant took aim and fired. He missed, and the enraged raptor charged them.

"Go!" Harding shouted. He and Grant ran back out, slamming the door behind them.

"Who was she eating?" Grant wondered.

Harding shook his head. "Come on, let's keep looking."

He and Grant ran off down another corridor. "Kids!" they shouted. "Kids! Where are you?"

* * *

Ellie and Arnold entered the abandoned control room. It was very dark. Ellie found a flashlight on the desk and turned it on.

Arnold immediately went to the central computer. He sat down and started typing. "I'll have us back up and running in no time," he promised.

Ellie shone the beam around the darkness. She remembered what happened earlier, with those clickers. They had attacked them in this very room.

"What is that?" Ellie asked. "Smells like the jungle… only more rotten."

Looking around in the darkness, she found a large clump of dirt and plant material.

There was a man laying in the mound.

Ellie screamed.

"What?" Arnold asked.

Ellie put her hand to her mouth, started backing away from the mound.

"What?" Arnold demanded.

"It's Muldoon," Ellie whispered.

Arnold jumped out of his chair and walked over. He swore when he saw the gruesome sight.

"They… ripped him open!"

"And laid eggs in him," Ellie added.

"Is he alive?"

Ellie knelt down for a closer look. She put her fingers to his neck. "Yes."

Arnold swore again.

Ellie grabbed her radio and called up Harding. "Gerry, come in."

"Yeah, Ellie?"

"We found Muldoon."

"Is he alive?"

"Yes, but… something laid eggs in his stomach."

"What?!"

Ellie listened to Harding explain to the others the information she had just given him.

"We can't just let him be like this," Arnold said.

"Ellie?" Harding said over the radio.

Ellie tore her eyes away from Muldoon. "Yes?"

There was a pause. "I talked to Wu and he said it's probably best to just put him down."

Ellie swallowed. "Copy that."

* * *

Elsewhere, a group of Troodon was lurking in the dark. Suddenly, they heard a loud gunshot… coming from where they had laid their eggs. Worried about their offspring, the pack immediately changed direction… heading to the control room.

* * *

"Over here," a woman beckoned to Trey and the kids. They didn't hesitate and they ran over to her. They were now in the hatchery.

"Dr. Sorkin?" Trey asked, recognizing the woman.

"Yes," Laura Sorkin nodded. "I'm keeping the eggs safe. I don't want a Troodon or a raptor getting into them." She eyed the baby raptor perched on Trey's shoulder. "Is she with you?" Trey nodded.

Sorkin turned her gaze to Tim and Lex. "You two must be Timothy and Alexis, Hammond's grandchildren. Right?"

"Yes, mam," Tim responded.

"I'm Laura Sorkin," the woman introduced. "I was one of your grandfather's head geneticists."

They heard a gunshot go off in the distance.

"What was that?" Lex asked.

* * *

Ellie lowered her gun. She took several deep breaths in an effort to calm down. Somehow, she couldn't pull her gaze away from Muldoon's lifeless corpse.

It was then that she noticed the writing.

Five letters: written in blood on the floor beside him. Ellie gasped. "Arnold," she said. "Come look at this." Arnold came over. He read the message. "I don't understand," he said. Ellie thought about it. This was Muldoon's final message. Of all the things he could have said, he considered this to be the most important. Why? What was so important about Laura?

"Let me call up Harding. Maybe Wu has an answer for us," Ellie said.

* * *

Trey handed the baby raptor to Lex. "Dr. Sorkin, if there's somebody else in the video with us, maybe we should-"

BAM! Sorkin struck Trey in the back of the head with her gun. He fell forward and hit the ground, knocked out.

"What the hell?!" Tim yelled.

"Sorry kids," Sorkin apologized. "But the grandchildren of John Hammond would make excellent hostages." She pointed the gun at them. "Don't try anything stupid."

* * *

Ellie was about to use her radio when she heard something. A raspy hissing and clicking that was getting louder.

"Oh no…" Arnold realized. He noticed a blood trail near an opened air vent. "They're going to try to come through the vent!"

* * *

Back in the security bunker, the survivors were huddled together. Everything was silent… except for a loud banging on the door. Something was trying to get in.

Jess whimpered and Malcolm did his best to comfort her, hugging the girl protectively.

"We're safe in here, right?" Gennaro asked. "Nothing can get in?"

Nobody answered. Their eyes were focused on the door as the banging continued.

* * *

Ellie ran to the vent. The cover was lying on the floor, discarded. She picked it up and put it back on. She looked at Arnold. "Get something heavy to put in front of it!" Arnold nodded and a moment later returned with a filing cabinet.

He and Ellie arranged it in front of the vent. "Think that'll do?" Ellie asked.

"Depends," Arnold replied. "I'm no expert. Too bad Wu ain't here."

Within the vents, they heard the creatures' talons scraping on the metal. The chortles and grunts. Ellie looked at Arnold. "We need the power back, now!"

"Right." Arnold turned and went back to the computers.

* * *

"Kids!" Grant shouted for the umpteenth time.

"They must be hiding," Harding said.

"Yeah… but where?"

"This isn't working. Let's go back and regroup in the control room. Figure out where to go from there," Harding suggested.

"Okay," Grant nodded.

The men turned and went back the way they had come.

Then Grant heard something. Clicking. Getting louder and nearer. Harding heard it as well.

"Run," they both said, taking off toward the control room.

* * *

Ellie was relieved when she saw Grant and Harding enter the control room.

"Did you find the kids?" she asked.

"No luck," Harding answered. "But there are Troodon right behind us!"

"They must be trying to find another way into the control room," Ellie realized, hearing the clicking sounds from the hallways.

Grant braced himself against the control room door, trying to lock it. "Dammit, the locks are electronic."

Several Troodon rammed into the door. Grant pushed back. "Ellie, Harding! Help me out!"

Then, to his horror, he saw the door handle turning… and the Troodon tried forcing it open. Claws began peeking out of the crack of space.

"They can open doors!" Grant screamed. "Ellie, they learned how to open doors!"

Harding leveled his rifle and fired. Blood spurted all over the place and the Troodon withdrew its now mutilated forearm. Grant shut the door.

It was a brief reprieve as the monsters attacked again seconds later this time throwing their full weight on the door. It was too much for even Grant, who could be considered to be the prime example of physical prowess. The door flung open and Grant fell back, and two of the nightmare-inducing creatures pinned him to the ground. Harding leveled his barrel as the first Troodon took a bite out of Grant's left shoulder.

* * *

In the distance, Tim and Lex heard the gunshots and the clicks of the Troodon pack. The siblings huddled together, scared. The baby raptor hissed, recognizing the sound of the creatures that lurked in the dark visitor center.

"Idiots," Laura Sorkin said under her breath. "If they get themselves killed, it's their fault."

Trey was still unconscious… or was he?

* * *

They hadn't locked the door to the security bunker in case another survivor outside needed safety. They never counted on the dinosaurs learning how to turn door handles. But like Malcolm theorized, these creatures were unpredictable and not to be underestimated. That was where Hammond had failed.

The men in the security bunker were doing their best to keep a raptor out as she tried to force herself into the bunker.

"Push!" Wu screamed. "Don't let her in!"

The raptor shrieked and did not give up. But neither did the humans. For the moment, it was a stalemate.

Jess whimpered fearfully, knowing that she may only have minutes to live. She hoped that her dad was safe, even if he couldn't come back to rescue her.

* * *

Arnold worked as fast as he could. He tried to ignore Grant's screams. He tried to ignore the guns of Harding and Sattler going off. He tried to ignore the clickings of the Troodon.

Suddenly, one of the dinosaurs yanked him away from the computer. Arnold screamed as the Troodon bit down on his arm. Finding his gun, Arnold placed it against the Troodon's head. He fired once and the creature dropped dead. Arnold clutched his bleeding arm, moaning in pain.

Things did not look good.

Arnold crawled back to the computer. He grabbed the desk and pulled himself up. He looked at the screen, blinking in pain. He reached out and pressed a key. All of a sudden, the lights in the building flashed on. For a moment there was silence as the humans and dinosaurs considered this. Then the chaos resumed.

Harding and Ellie propped themselves against the door trying to hold the monsters back. All of a sudden the locks clicked into place. Harding gasped. "You did it Arnold!"

* * *

The phone in the security bunker rang. Jess ran over and answered it.

"Dad? Is that you?"

"Yes. Mr. Arnold managed to get the power back on. We'll be able to call the mainland and tell them to send the helic-"

"Dad! There are raptors trying to get into the bunker!"

"What?"

"They learned how to open up doors and they're forcing their way in! We can't hold out much longer!"

"I'm coming, Jess! Don't worry!"

"Hurry!"

The call ended and Jess started crying, silently praying that rescue would come. She hugged her knees, listening to the screams of the struggling men and the shrieks of the raptors as they started to win the battle of strength.

"Please, Dad. I need you…"

* * *

**The power may be restored, but the characters aren't out of danger yet! I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. Regis' death was actually inspired by a scene from a rough draft of the movie's script, except it was Hammond who was killed instead of Regis. Dodgson did make it off the island alive, which leaves the door open for appearances in potential sequels. Which unfortunately meant that Nima had to die because of her connection to Dodgson. Tune in soon for the exciting conclusion of The Isla Nublar Incident!**


	7. Seventh Iteration

**Here we are! The grand finale of The Isla Nublar Incident! Thank you to everyone who's been following the story and I hope you enjoy the conclusion.**

* * *

**Seventh Iteration**

"_Increasingly, the mathematics will demand the courage to face its implications."_

-IAN MALCOLM

"They're coming through the glass!" Grant screamed.

Harding picked up a ladder and punched open the ceiling tiles with his gun. Moving slowly through a crawl space, the ceiling would be sturdy enough to support them.

As the group climbed up into the ceiling, the Troodon pack smashed their way through the glass and into the control room.

Harding kicked the ladder down.

The Troodons hissed at the moving ceiling, but their first concern were their eggs, which now had their full attention. Each adult picked up an egg in their jaws. This room was too bright now, so they'll look for somewhere darker to make a new nest.

Grant, Harding, Ellie, and Arnold crawled through the ceiling. It was dark; Grant banged his head several times on pipes.

"Does anyone know where we're trying to get to?" Ellie asked.

"I could be wrong, but I think that if we keep going this direction, we should come out in the main room," Harding calculated.

"But you're not sure?"

"Quiet," Arnold whispered. "Did you hear that?"

Everyone fell silent for a moment. "Hear what?"

"I just thought I heard something. Guess not."

"But what was it? You thought you heard?"

Arnold paused. "I thought I heard the T-Rex roaring."

"Let's hope not. That's the last thing we want," Harding said.

* * *

Tim and Lex sat huddled on the floor while Sorkin found a radio.

"Hello?" She pressed multiple buttons on the device. "How does this thing work…"

Eventually, there was a click and then-

"Hi! Who's this?" It sounded like Dr. Wu.

"Henry," Laura Sorkin said. "I have Hammond's grandchildren."

"Laura! Sorkin, I mean! That's great! Where are you?"

"Some place safe and isolated."

Wu was obviously put off by Sorkin's evasive answer to his question. "Sorkin, is everything alright?" he asked.

Before Sorkin could respond, Trey let out a moan. The workman was waking up! Sorkin turned away from the radio and reached into her pocket for the gun. Trey, anticipating this, reacted on instinct and kicked Sorkin in the shin. Sorkin dropped like a cement block. Yelling, the two of them got into a wrestling match, both of them trying to secure Sorkin's weapon.

Tim hung back, wondering if he should intervene.

"Hey, you!" Lex shouted.

Sorkin briefly turned to look in Lex's direction… and the baby raptor was launched into her face. Sorkin screamed as the baby started to scratch her features while tightly clinging onto her head.

Sorkin eventually knocked the baby raptor off of her and tried to find her gun, but it had flung out of her grasp… and had been retrieved by Tim, who pointed the weapon at Sorkin, hands shaking.

The distracted Sorkin didn't see Trey's elbow slam into her head and she slumped down, unconscious. Trey got up.

"Good job, kids," he nodded. Tim handed the gun to Trey and the baby raptor scurried back onto Lex's shoulder. Trey retrieved Sorkin's radio.

"Hello? Is anybody there? This is Trey Roland. I'm with Hammond's grandchildren. They're safe."

"This is Dr. Henry Wu," a voice responded after a moment of silence. "Unfortunately we have a crisis right now…" Trey heard shouting and a familiar shriek. "Protect the kids, no matter what." The radio went dead.

"Are they okay?" Lex asked.

"I don't know," Trey replied truthfully. He looked over the fallen Laura Sorkin. "Now what will we do with her?"

* * *

Harding was sweating and breathless but he refused to slow down. There was no time. Jess could be getting eaten right at this moment! The thought of it made Harding's stomach twist. Faster, faster he told himself.

He shot a glance over his shoulder to check Ellie, Grant and Arnold. They had fallen behind. Of course they had. Both Grant and Arnold have some serious wounds. Harding didn't blame them, but he couldn't afford to slow down. "Please hurry!" he shouted at them.

"We can't," Arnold said helplessly. "Gerry, just go on ahead. We'll catch up."

Harding didn't need to be told twice. He scampered on ahead, searching desperately for a way out. There was none. In rage, he kicked the tile under him.

The tile gave out, and Harding found himself falling several feet down to the ground.

* * *

"Don't you have any weapons in this place?" Malcolm demanded.

Wu gaped at him for a moment, and then ran to the back. He grabbed three rifles and boxes of ammunition. He carried the weapons and ammo back to the main room. He took a rifle. Malcolm took another. Gennaro took another. They began loading their weapons. Jess and Hammond watched on, their faces pale and frightened.

"Have either of you, by chance, fired a gun before?" Wu asked Malcolm and Gennaro.

Malcolm shook his head. "When I was a kid," Gennaro said.

"How hard can it be?" Malcolm asked with a forced laugh.

"I know how to use a gun," Jess said. Wu looked at her in surprise. "I go hunting sometimes, with my uncle," Jess continued.

Wu gave her his gun.

The door to the security bunker flew open. A raptor stood in the doorway, hissing. As raptors began to enter the building, guns went off in an attempt to fight them off. The survivors in the bunker were making their last stand here. There was nowhere they could go. They could either hold out until help arrives… or be slaughtered. The survivors preferred the first option, making every bullet count. Soon, the small bunker became a war zone.

* * *

Trey tried the radio again, but he only heard gunshots and snarls. He didn't know what was happening, but he didn't like it.

How much longer should they stay here anyway?

* * *

"Are you okay?" Sattler asked Harding as the vet picked himself off the ground.

"Yeah," Harding nodded. "Just dazed. Be careful."

Sattler dropped down from the ceiling and she landed next to Harding. The two then carefully helped Grant and Arnold down from the ceiling.

"Come on!" Harding urged.

"Wait, what about Tim and Lex?" Grant remembered. "They could still be in the building."

"There's an emergency in the bunker happening right now," Harding pointed out. "And I don't think we can afford to split up. Too dangerous."

"Harding, I'm not leaving these kids behind."

"I understand that but-" He was interrupted by his forgotten radio coming back on.

"Wu, are you there?" Trey's voice asked. "Wu, what's wrong? What happened?"

Grant recognized the voice and snatched up the radio. "Trey, this is Grant! Are the kids with you? Are they okay? Where can I find you?"

"How about the main room?" Trey suggested.

"Okay. We should be able to make our way there."

"Okay. Good luck."

Grant turned to Harding.

"I'm waiting here for them. You, Ellie and Arnold can go."

Harding nodded. "Fine. Stay alive."

Harding took off running, not waiting to see if Ellie and Arnold would follow.

He pushed through the huge doors and kept running, down the marble staircase and the road. He heard footsteps behind him. He glanced over his shoulder to see Ellie chasing after him. No sign of Arnold though. He must have lost his nerve.

Harding forced himself to run faster. His lungs seared, his legs burned, but he didn't stop. The thought of Jessica being ripped apart kept him motivated. In the distance, he could just begin to hear the gunshots and vicious snarling of the raptors.

Please God, he thought. Don't let me be too late.

By the time he reached the bunker he was out of breath. The scene before him drew him to a halt. It looked like a battlefield. A raptor lay in the doorway, dead, blood spilling from multiple coin-sized holes in her flesh. Harding stepped over the body and peered into the bunker. He drew in a breath.

Donald Gennaro lay on the floor, his guts spilled out. Harding quickly looked away, nauseated. He ventured further into the room, stepping over multiple dead raptors.

He found John Hammond.

The elderly man was underneath the body of a raptor. One side of the raptor's head was covered in blood, mutilated. Harding pushed the dead animal off his boss and looked down to see, with a surge of relief, that Hammond was alive.

He appeared to be in shock. He didn't seem to notice Harding. He just stared up at the ceiling, silent.

"Gerry." The voice came from behind him. Harding turned; saw Ellie pointing at something; a closet. The door opened and Jessica Harding stepped out. She had a traumatized look on her face. Harding ran to her and hugged her. The tears began to spill down his cheeks before he could stop them.

"Jessie," he said, looking at her face. "Are you alright?"

She didn't respond. She was looking at him - sort of. It was more like she was looking through him, at some unfixed point only she could see.

Harding picked her up in his arms.

"See if anyone else is still alive," he told Ellie.

Ellie found a wounded Malcolm leaning against the wall, a gun shaking in his arms.

"Dr. Malcolm?" Ellie asked, trying to get his attention.

"Remind me to thank John for the lovely trip," Malcolm muttered, clearly not all there. Tears streamed down his face. "I hate being right all the time."

Wu was doing his best to play the role of medic, giving survivors medical attention and treating wounds. He was injured himself, bandages covering his arms and side. Every time he moved he winced in pain. A raptor must have jumped him during the fight.

"Let me help," Ellie insisted, sitting Wu down.

"Thank you," Wu nodded, relaxing and letting Ellie treat his injuries. "What do we do now?"

"We call the mainland," Harding explained, still holding Jess. "And we tell them to send the damn helicopters."

They found a phone and made the call. Hopefully, this nightmare would soon be over.

"This is just a delay," Hammond said to himself, sitting in the corner. "That's all it is. All major theme parks have delays. When Disneyland first opened nothing worked…"

* * *

Grant paced anxiously. The radio had gone dead a couple of minutes ago. Trey was no longer answering his calls.

"Come on," he muttered. "Where are you?"

Finally, after several grueling minutes, he heard the sound of approaching footsteps. "Oh, good," he said with relief. "I was wondering what…"

The person stepped into view, but it wasn't Trey, nor Lex or Tim. It was a woman, with blonde hair and a white lab coat. And a revolver in her hand.

"Uh…" Grant said.

"Dr. Grant is it?" the woman said.

"Yes…"

The woman pointed her gun at him. "Don't move and don't say anything. Turn around slowly and put the radio on the floor. Now!"

* * *

Lex screamed and slammed her fists against the door to the freezer.

"Let us out! Let us out!"

No answer.

"She has to come back, right?" she asked Tim and Trey. "She's not going to leave us here to freeze, is she?"

Trey shrugged hopelessly. This was his fault. He should've stopped Sorkin, but she got the drop on them and lead them at gunpoint into the kitchen, then locked them in the freezer.

"So… cold…" Tim shivered. The baby raptor was curled up in his lap, desperately trying to stay warm.

"Kids, come here," Trey told them. "Huddle together for warmth."

Tim and Lex did as they were told, silently praying for somebody, anybody, to let them out of here before it was too late…

* * *

Sorkin ushered Grant into the kitchen. "What's here?" Grant asked. "Why have you brought me here?"

"Open the freezer and find out," Sorkin told him.

What was in the freezer? Grant wondered. What had this crazy woman done?

He opened the freezer and went still.

"You're out of your mind! Do you want them to freeze to death?"

Trey, Lex and Tim were huddled in the corner, trying desperately to keep warm.

"Shut up and go in," Sorkin ordered. She prodded him with her gun.

Grant stepped inside. The door slammed shut behind him.

* * *

Harding helped Wu get Gennaro's body outside. There was still a terrible mess all over the floor, but Wu was getting to work on that.

"I haven't heard anything from Grant in about ten minutes," Harding reported.

"Neither have we," Wu added.

"Something might have happened," Arnold said.

Ellie nodded. "Alan said he'd been in the main room. Let's start there."

Harding agreed. He grabbed his rifle and started toward the door. "Wait!" Jess called him back. "I'm going with you this time," she said.

Harding opened his mouth to protest but stopped. "Alright," he said after a moment. "Stay close to me."

Harding, Jess and Ellie gathered by the door. "We'll be back in a few minutes," Ellie promised.

* * *

Tim and Lex ran over and hugged Grant tightly. crying.

"It's okay, kids," he reassured. "We'll find a way out of here. I promise. Trey, do you know who that woman is?"

Trey nodded. "Dr. Laura Sorkin. One of InGen's leading paleogeneticists. However, she was removed from the geneticist team and replaced with Dr. Henry Wu after some disagreements with Hammond and the board. She was assigned to her own laboratory, but I guess she went to the visitor center after the power went out. I have no idea what she's up to now. I think she intends to use us as hostages, but to what ends I don't know."

Grant noticed the baby raptor, which was shivering against Tim's shirt.

"Is that-"

"The baby raptor from yesterday's tour," Tim finished, nodding. "We found her in the nursery and took her with us."

"If she stays in here any longer she might die," Grant realized grimly.

"So might we," Trey added.

* * *

Wu's radio came to life. "Wu? Are you there?"

Wu answered the radio. "Sorkin? Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." There was a few moments of silence before she continued. "I have Hammond's grandchildren and two men hostage. I won't tell you where they are until my demands are met."

"What? Laura, have you gone insane? What are you hoping to-"

"Their lives are in your hands, Wu."

Wu's face paled. She was serious. "What do you want?"

"To meet with you and talk at an isolated location where we can discuss things in peace. Come alone. And unarmed."

Sorkin gave him a location and then the radio went silent.

* * *

"Wait a minute…" Arnold appeared to be deep in thought. Suddenly, he slapped his forehead. Then he burst out laughing. Wu, Malcolm and Hammond stared at him in bewilderment.

"What is it?" Wu demanded.

Arnold got control over himself. "The cameras," he explained. "I forgot all about them. We can use them to find the hostages!"

Wu grinned. "That's right!"

"What cameras?" Malcolm asked.

"The security cameras. We have them wired up all over the building. I can access them from the control room and use them to find the kids." Arnold beamed.

"Then let's go," Wu said. He and Arnold both grabbed a rifle each. Saying farewell to Malcolm and Hammond, they left the bunker and started down the long gravel road.

Wu pulled his radio out of his pocket. "Gerry," he said into it. "Are you there?"

After a moment: "I'm here, Henry. What's up?"

"We're on our way to you. Arnold had an idea. We can use the security cameras to find the hostages."

"Good plan. We'll be waiting."

Wu and Arnold pushed through the massive doors. Harding, Ellie and Jess were waiting inside.

"The control room is this way," Arnold said.

The door to the control room was electronically locked, but Arnold had a keycard that allowed them to get inside. He froze, shocked.

The computers were destroyed, a bullet through each of the monitors.

"Dammit!" he swore. "Laura must have predicted us trying to use the cameras!"

"What now?" Ellie asked.

Arnold kicked a chair across the room, cursing. "No idea. The helicopters are going to be here soon and we have to find the hostages by then. I'm worried what else Laura might be crazy enough to try."

Arnold slumped against the wall, feeling defeated. "Whenever it seems like we're restoring order to the island, things only get worse. I guess Malcolm was right after all." He chuckled to himself. "God dammit, I feel useless."

Wu sighed. "I can't keep Laura waiting. Maybe the rest of you will be able to find the hostages by searching the building while I keep Laura busy. Unless somebody has a better plan, because we're running out of options and every minute wasted counts."

Nobody said anything and Wu realized that it was all up to him.

"Fine," Harding said. "We'll find them. Arnold, you coming?"

Arnold got up as if to leave, but then stopped. "No, I think I'll stay here. Maybe I can salvage one of these computers. If not, I could always build one from spare parts."

Harding was impressed. "Okay. I hope so." He looked at Ellie. "What about you?"

"You'll need all the help you can get," the paleo botanist replied.

"True that."

Harding turned to Wu. He felt he should say something, seeing as they may never see each other again.

In the end, all he said was, "Good luck out there."

Wu responded in kind. They all went their separate ways: Arnold staying in the control room, Ellie, Harding and Jess leaving in search of the hostages, and Wu to the garage.

Wu clambered into the nearest jeep and sped off, out of Harding's sight.

Wu drove to the safari lodge. Sorkin was waiting for him in the lobby.

"About time, Henry," Sorkin said impatiently, keeping her gun trained on Wu. "I was starting to think you weren't going to show."

"Why are you doing this, Laura?" Wu needed to know.

"Because I was left with no choice. Hammond told me that when all of this was over I would lose my job. All of my work would be for nothing, my career ruined. And I hated to think what would become of the dinosaurs, now that they're no longer under your control. I had to do something, Henry."

"But what are you trying to achieve? You can't win."

"I know. But I'm not trying to win. If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me."

"W-what?" Wu said, shocked. "Are you going to kill me?"

Sorkin laughed. "Don't be stupid, Wu. I'm not a murderer. Killing you would be pointless and a waste of a bullet. No, I'm going to ruin you."

Wu realized what she meant. "Oh no…"

"What would Hammond think if he knew what you were working on behind his back? Your attempts to play God and tamper with nature?"

"You'll need proof."

"And you're going to help me. Your secret journals. I know you've got them stashed somewhere. And I want you to show me where they are, so that everybody else learns what we know."

"What about the hostages?"

"I'll tell the others where they are if you play along."

Wu sighed. "Fine."

Sorkin gave a smug grin. "Let's go for a drive. And don't try anything. I need you alive, but a wounding shot would still hurt a lot."

Wu nodded and lead Sorkin outside. He remembered how Sorkin had blackmailed him years earlier into giving her a field lab for her independent research. And now she was going to expose him.

"So where are they?" Sorkin asked as she drove.

"In my office in the visitor center," Wu told her.

"Excellent."

They drove on until they reached the center. Sorkin and Wu clambered out. Sorkin kept her pistol trained on the back of Wu's head as they walked up the marble steps and pushed open the huge front doors.

Harding and Jess were in the lobby. Harding raised his rifle and pointed it at Sorkin. "Let him go Laura."

"Not so fast," Sorkin warned. "One false move and I'll pull the trigger. Step aside; we're just going for a little walk."

"Why are you dong this Laura? What's the point? Even if you make it off this island in one piece, you'll be arrested. And then what will all of this have been for?"

"I said move!" Sorkin snapped. "I will shoot him. Don't think I won't."

Something about the crazed look on her face told Harding that she would. Slowly, he lowered his rifle.

"Good. Now, drop it."

Scowling, Harding dropped his gun.

"Now kick it to me."

Harding gave it a good hearty kick. It slid across the floor toward Sorkin's feet. She picked it up.

"Good. Now don't try anything. If Wu cooperates with me, I'll tell you where Grant and the kids are."

Sorkin and Wu strode past the fuming veterinarian and his daughter. They ascended up the spiraling staircase and headed down a hallway.

They came to the end of the hall. There was a door. Wu swiped his keycard through it. They went inside, and the door closed.

Neither of them noticed an opened air vent that they walked by.

Wu stopped in front of a small wall safe.

"Open it," Sorkin ordered, gesturing with his gun.

Wu nodded weakly and entered the combination. The wall safe popped open, revealing it was full of embryos and journals.

"There," Wu said, stepping aside. "All the proof you need to ruin my reputation and my career."

Sorkin grinned and flipped through one of the journals, which was labeled 'INDOMINUS.'

"Now where are the hostages?" Wu asked, feeling defeated as Sorkin looked through the contents of the wall safe.

"Oh, they're chilling out in the walk-in freezer in the kitchen," Sorkin answered. "I got what I wanted."

Then, in the darkness of the office, was a clicking sound. Recognizing it, Sorkin spun around and saw a pair of glowing eyes looking back at her. More pairs of eyes appeared in the shadows.

"Oh shit," Wu swore.

Sorkin fired her gun in rapid succession. The eyes disappeared for a moment, but came back a second later. A long, terrifying hiss emanated from the darkness.

Sorkin started shoving as much of the contents of Wu's safe into her knapsack as she could. Realizing he had an opening, Wu bolted for the door. With fumbling hands, he unlocked the door and ran out. He looked back. The eyes in the darkness grew brighter and the clicking intensified. Sorkin was running to the door.

Wu's hand hovered over the 'close' button. His face was stony as he pressed the button. The door slammed shut. He heard Sorkin shouting, cursing his name. Then the screaming began.

It was horrifying. Covering his ears, Wu ran back down the hall, away from the office. As he rounded the corner, he collided with Harding.

"Henry!" Harding exclaimed. "Are you alright? Where's Sorkin?"

Wu pointed back the way he had come. The screams had died down now.

"Is she dead?" Harding asked.

Wu nodded. "Yes."

Harding's face was grim. "Did she tell you where the kids are?"

Wu nodded again. "In the walk-in freezer."

Harding turned around and dashed down the stairs. Wu followed him more slowly, recollecting upon what he had done.

* * *

Grant's breathing was getting slower. He felt like he wanted to sleep, but he knew he couldn't. He needed to protect Tim and Lex. He couldn't fail them.

The kids cuddled with him and Trey for warmth, but it wasn't enough, especially in their current clothes which were meant for humid Costa Rican jungles.

"Someone has to find us, right?" Grant heard Tim ask.

"We'll make it," Grant promised. "We've come this far."

"Dr. Grant, thank you," Lex said weakly, shivering. "For going out of your way to take care of us."

"Stay with me, kids," Grant begged, trying to keep the kids optimistic. "Please…"

Suddenly, the door to the freezer opened up. Grant recognized Dr. Harding, his daughter, Mr. Arnold, Dr. Wu, and…

"Alan!"

Grant smiled. "Ellie…"

The four frozen former hostages were helped out of the freezer. Blankets were wrapped around them to help raise their body temperatures and thaw out.

Wu was using a radio to talk with Hammond and relay the news that his grandchildren were safe and the woman named Sorkin was taken care of.

Harding checked on the baby raptor, which was recovering her strength.

"Are we really taking the baby raptor with us?" Arnold asked.

"She'll die by herself," Harding answered. "Hammond won't mind, since his grandchildren seem to like her."

"When will the helicopters get here?" Grant asked, drinking some hot water that had been given to him, Trey, and the kids.

"Soon," Harding told him. "We just need to pick up Malcolm and Hammond and drive to the landing pad."

Grant gave a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, he jinxed it. Somewhere else in the visitor center, a raptor called out and was answered by several similar calls. Everyone froze in horror, realizing they needed to get out of there fast.

The group ran out of the kitchen and to the dining hall.

Suddenly, a snarling Velociraptor leapt out from behind the curtains.

"Go back!" Grant shouted and everyone ran back into the kitchen. Arnold closed the door as the raptor leapt, slamming herself into it.

Harding led them to the other side of the kitchen, to another door. He opened it and peeked out. "Coast clear!" He ushered everyone through.

They ran down a long hallway, hearing the snarls of the raptors and the clicking of the Troodon pack echoing around them.

Three Troodon materialized at the end of the hall. Grant opened the nearest door which happened to lead to the basement. Everyone went inside. Wu shut the door.

"Does anyone have a flashlight?" Ellie asked.

Trey produced one from his belt. He flicked it on and scanned the stairwell.

"This is a bad idea," Ellie said. "Those things are attracted to the dark, remember?"

"That's right. But now we have an advantage," Arnold said.

"What?"

Arnold flicked the switch on the wall. The stairwell flooded with light.

The group started making their way down the stairs. "Where are we going?" Tim asked.

"I know these tunnels," Trey said. "I can get us out of here. I can lead us right to the beach."

"Sounds good to me," Wu said.

At the bottom of the stairs, the group walked out of the tunnel and found themselves standing on the beach, looking at the Pacific Ocean.

"Look!" Jess shouted, pointing at a group of animals scampering and kicking in the sand.

"Raptors," Tim realized, remembering what he had seen the previous night, before the Tyrannosaurus had torn through the fence.

The young raptors, who must have been born in the wild, moved back into the shade of the palm trees at the edge of the mangrove swamp, and there they stood, lined up in their peculiar fashion, watching the ocean. They stared fixedly to the south, ignoring the humans.

Then they heard the throb of marine diesels, and through the mist they saw a ship appearing in the south. A large freighter, it slowly moved north. As the freighter passed, all the animals watched it, standing silent except for the occasional chirp or squeak.

Grant stared at the raptors, ranged along the beach in a rigid formation, silently watching the boat. And he suddenly understood what he was looking at.

"Those animals must be desperate to escape from here," Wu said, shaking his head.

"No," Grant said. "They don't want to escape at all."

"They don't?"

"No," Grant said. "They want to migrate."

Suddenly, helicopters burst through the fog, thundering and wheeling over the landscape. The raptors scattered in alarm.

"About time," Trey said, visibly relieved.

"Come on," Grant told the others. "Let's go home."

"I think we should let Clarence go first," Lex said, referring to the baby raptor in her arms.

"Clarence?" Wu asked, puzzled.

"I named her," Lex beamed.

"You named her Clarence?"

"Those raptors, they'll adopt her right?" Lex asked. "She'll be much happier free with her own kind than being taken back to the mainland."

"You're right," Grant nodded. "It's time to let her go."

Lex gave the baby raptor a final pat on the head, and released her.

The animal wouldn't leave.

"Go on, shoo!" Lex said. "Go home!"

The raptor turned, and ran off into the foliage. They briefly saw the shadow of an older raptor appear, sniff the baby, and accept her. Them they both vanished.

* * *

A while later, Malcolm was being carried on a stretcher into a helicopter while the other survivors got on board.

Grant and Hammond walked together, toward the helicopter.

"Dr. Grant, don't abandon this beautiful place," Hammond begged. "I need a man just like you to help me get my park back on its feet again. And it will be on its feet again."

"We have to leave now," Grant insisted.

Hammond stopped. "Oh you don't know. There are wonderful plans in the works, sites already purchased for Euro-Jurassic and Jurassic Japan."

Grant was unimpressed. He held a hand out to Hammond.

"Don't you see I've exalted human potential here?" Hammond asked, trying a new approach. "You must see it. You must feel it. I called back a life form. Listen, Dr. Grant, don't go. Be a part of this. I'm inviting you to do just that - let the others go, if they want."

"You interrupted natural law," Grant told him. "There are regulations, rules that nature follows that make her knowable."

"You mean there are rules that nature follows that create barriers to our knowledge," Hammond argued.

"Barriers? Like the seasons? The earth spinning, orbiting the sun? The entire solar system in interlocking motion. Our own beings in biological step with it all. Mr. Hammond, you've disrupted the pattern and look what it's done!"

"I know what it's done," Hammond acknowledged. "I've made Triceratops and Gallimimus and T-Rex. I've got a batch of Iguanadons being born on Tuesday. What do you say to that?"

Grant shook his head. "Don't count on it. Now get in."

He jumped in the helicopter, holding out a hand to Hammond.

"You created mutant forms that you further mutated to create amusement attractions," he explained.

"I created genetic miracles!" Hammond insisted.

"You created a park to generate a profit-making merchandising operation," Grant corrected.

"The merchandise is just a by-product," Hammond defended. "Souvenirs for people to reflect on the wonder. You fainted when you saw the Apatosaurus. Dr. Grant, look, let's not argue. The problem is that my employees were not up to par with my dream. Nedry, Sorkin, Wu, Arnold, Muldoon, Regis. They failed me. The park, I promise you, is safe. It really is."

Grant grabbed Hammond's arm, started to tug.

"You park is doomed," he told him. "Now come with me."

"It is not!" Hammond snapped. "It's blooming! In the throes of labor! You are just like Malcolm, one more more negative voice in a universe of negativity. You'll amount to nothing. You'll be a bone-brusher all your life. I pity you."

Hammond pulled his arm away and strode away from the helicopter just as the rotors started up. Hammond's suit whipped in the wind.

"Come back, Mr. Hammond!" Grant called to him, reaching out his arm. "It's over!"

Hammond kept walking. He disappeared over a grassy knoll.

Grant's outstretched hand dropped to his side when the attack came.

With a huge bellow, the T-Rex came charging at the helicopter. The pilot screamed for all to board as he started to lift off.

The Rex bit onto the copter skid as the helicopter tried to escape. The helicopter angled dangerously as the Rex held on.

Ellie fired a fire-extinguisher into the furious face of the Rex and her jaws relaxed. The helicopter escaped and started to climb high into the sky. The Rex pawed after it, then drops down to four legs and gave the helicopter a final swipe with her tail.

The tail swished through the air and cracked against the plexiglass windshield which fissured and popped. The pilot struggled to maintain altitude and manages to keep the craft in the air.

With a roar of its own, the helicopter broke into the blue sky and soared away, leaving an angry T-Rex alone. Unnoticed by the frustrated Rex, Hammond slipped away and walked into the jungle.

* * *

Hammond slowly climbed a steep hill covered with creeping growth. He almost reached the top when he slipped. He fell to the soft ground and rolled. He tumbled helplessly, rolling and spinning down the sharp drop, finally coming to a complete stop at the foot of the hill. His face splashed into shallow tepid water, which gurgled around him and ran up his nose. He was lying face down in a little stream.

As he got to his feet, he felt a sharp pain in his right ankle that brought tears to his eyes. He tested it gingerly: it might be broken. He forced himself to put his full weight on it, gritting his teeth. Yes. Almost certainly broken.

He heard a squeaking, then a chattering sound. Some kind of small birds, hopping in the undergrowth. There were all kinds of things out here: rats, possums, snakes.

The squeaking got louder, and small bits of earth rolled down the hillside past him. Something was coming. Then he saw a dark green animal hopping down the hill toward him - and another and another.

Compys, he thought with a chill. Scavengers.

The compys didn't look dangerous. They were about as big as chickens, and they moved up and down with little nervous jerks, like chickens. But he knew they were venomous. Their bites had a slow-acting poison that they used to kill crippled animals.

Crippled animals, he thought, frowning.

The first of the compys perched on the hillside, staring at him. She stayed about five feet away, beyond his reach, and just watched him. Others came down soon after, and they stood in a row. Watching. They hopped up and down and chittered and waved their little clawed hands.

"Shoo! Get away!" he said, and threw a rock.

The compys backed away, but only a foot or two. They weren't afraid. They seemed to know he couldn't hurt them.

Hammond tore a branch from a tree and swiped at them with it. The compys dodged, nipped at the leaves, squeaked happily. They seemed to think he was playing a game. He thought again about the venom. He remembered that one of the animal handlers had been bitten by a compy in a cage. The handler had said the poison was like a narcotic-peaceful, dreamy. No pain. You just wanted to go to sleep.

The hell with that. Hammond picked up a rock, aimed carefully, and threw it, striking one compy flat in the chest. The little animal shrieked in alarm as she was knocked backward, and rolled over her tail. The other animals immediately backed away.

Hammond turned away and started to climb the hill. Holding branches in both hands, he hopped on his left leg, feeling the ache in his thigh. He had not gone more than ten feet when one of the compys jumped onto his back. He flung his arms wildly, knocking the animal away, but lost his balance and slid back down the hillside. As he came to a stop, a second compy sprang forward, and took a tiny nip from his hand. He looked with horror, seeing the blood flow over his fingers. He turned and began to scramble up the hillside again.

Another compy lumped onto his shoulder, and he felt a brief pain as she bit the back of his neck. He shrieked and smacked the animal away. He turned to face the animals, breathing hard, and they stood all around him, hopping up and down and cocking their heads, watching him. From the bite on his neck, he felt warmth flow through his shoulders, down his spine.

Lying on his back on the hillside, he began to feel strangely relaxed, detached from himself. Hammond lay very still, as still as a child in its crib, and he felt wonderfully peaceful. When the next compy came up and bit his ankle, he made only a halfhearted effort to kick her away. The little animals edged closer. Soon they were chattering all around him, like excited birds. He raised his head as another compy jumped onto his chest, the animal surprisingly light and delicate. Hammond felt only a slight pain, very slight, as the compy bent to chew his neck.

* * *

Grant sat down next to Wu.

"Hammond stayed?" Wu asked.

Grant nodded his head.

"A pity. I know this island had potential. A few careless mistakes brought it to its knees. At the end of the day though, it wasn't a bad idea. Just could have been executed better."

Grant eyed the geneticist carefully. "You sound like this isn't over."

"Oh, Dr. Grant," Wu said. "I imagine it isn't."

The helicopter flew away into the rolling clouds…

Grant looked out the window and glimpsed cearadactyls flying low over the water and soaring into the air with freshly caught fish in their jaws.

He felt somebody hold his hand. Turning away from the window, he saw Ellie smiling at him. He returned the smile.

With the island behind them, it was time to move forward. It was time to go home.

* * *

The boat that Nima Cruz and Miles Chadwick had been on was later found abandoned on the Costa Rican mainland, having drifted away from Isla Nublar and washed ashore. No signs of life were found on the boat, but three-toed tracks were discovered leading into the nearby jungles.

_If there's one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it's that life will not be contained.  
_  
Something very strange then began to happen in the rural regions. Unknown creatures began eating crops like agama beans and soy, foods that were rich in lysine.

_Life breaks free. It expands to new territories._

These creatures could not be found. Of course, it would be difficult to search for them in the jungle. A search party could spend years in the Ismaloya mountains, with nothing to show for it.

_It crashes through barriers. Painfully, maybe even… dangerously.  
_  
Then people began to disappear without a trace during the night. Others reported a strange clicking sound that they could not recognize in the dark… and eyes that glowed in the shadows.

_I'm simply saying that life finds a way._

**The End?**

* * *

**A lot happened in this chapter. First of all, I always planned for Hammond to die. When I began this experiment with my friend, it was my intention that Hammond would be killed by his creations. His death was a reference to the novel and a script where he decided to stay behind. Similarly, Sorkin was killed by the very same creatures she had saved. However, the story has not ended. Like Wu told Grant, this isn't over. There are Troodon on the mainland, Dodgson escaped, Harding still has a promise to keep, and there will obviously be consequences of this entire event. And do not fear, the aftermath of the Isla Nublar Incident will be explored in... "Jurassic Park: The Chaos Continues!" And the sequel will be out soon. Henry Wu did have a larger part in this final iteration, where some ulterior motives and secret projects of his were hinted at. This is because Wu is actually the main character of this reimagined franchise and will have a larger role in what's to come. Once again, thank you for reading, please leave a review, and stay tuned for the follow up!**

**Casualties:**

**David Blanks, killed by Troodon on June 11th**

**Dennis Nedry, killed by Dilophosaurus on June 11th**

**Bob, killed by Troodon on June 11th**

**Miles Chadwick, killed by Troodon on June 11th**

**Thomas Albert, killed by Velociraptor on June 11th**

**Nima Cruz, killed by Velociraptor on June 12th**

**John Harris, killed by Velociraptor on June 12th**

**Ed Regis, killed by Velociraptor on June 12th**

**Robert Muldoon, mercy killed by Ellie Sattler on June 12th**

**Donald Gennaro, killed by Velociraptor on June 12th**

**Dr. Laura Sorkin, killed by Troodon on June 12th**

**John Hammond, killed by Compsognathus on June 12th**

**Survivors:**

**Alexis "Lex" Murphy**

**Dr. Alan Grant**

**Dr. Ellie Sattler**

**Dr. Gerald "Gerry" Harding**

**Dr. Henry Wu**

**Dr. Ian Malcolm**

**Dr. Lewis Dodgson**

**Jessica "Jess" Harding**

**John "Ray" Arnold**

**Timothy "Tim" Murphy**

**Trey Roland**

**Species Encountered:**

**Apatosaurus excelsus**

**Baryonyx walkeri**

**Cearadactylus atrox**

**Compsognathus triassicus**

**Dilophosaurus venenifer**

**Euoplocephalus tutus**

**Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis**

**Parasaurolophus walkeri**

**Stegosaurus stenops**

**Triceratops horridus**

**Troodon pectinodon**

**Tyrannosaurus rex**

**Velociraptor antirrhopus**

**And finally, here's a sneak peek of the second installment of this series...**

* * *

_Synopsis: The aftermath of the Isla Nublar Incident. The survivors are being held in Costa Rica for the time being, getting much needed medical treatment and relaxation while their fates are decided. With the death of InGen's CEO John Hammond, the company is vulnerable. Their rivals Biosyn plans on taking advantage of the situation, but InGen won't let them have the island without a fight. Meanwhile, dinosaurs are appearing on the Costa Rican mainland. And while Gerry Harding tries to keep a promise he made, Dr. Henry Wu intends to recover the research he left behind. It's time to return to Isla Nublar..._

The tropical rain fell in great drenching sheets, hammering the corrugated roof of the clinic in Bahia Anasco. It was nearly midnight; power had been lost in the storm, and the midwife Elena Morales was working by flashlight when she heard a squeaking, chirping sound. Thinking that it was a rat, she quickly put a compress on the forehead of the mother and went into the next room to check on the newborn baby. As her hand touched the doorknob, she heard the chirping again, and she relaxed. Evidently it was just a bird, flying in the window to get out of the rain. Costa Ricans said that when a bird came to visit a newborn child, it brought good luck.

Elena opened the door. The infant lay in a wicker bassinet, swaddled in a light blanket, only its face exposed. Around the rim of the bassinet, three dark-green lizards crouched like they saw Elena, they cocked their heads and stared curiously at her, but did not flee. In the light of her flashlight Elena saw the blood dripping from their snouts. Softly chirping, one lizard bent down and, with a quick shake of his head, tore a ragged chunk of flesh from the baby. Elena rushed forward, screaming, and the lizards fled into the darkness. But long before she reached the bassinet, she could see what had happened to the infant's face, and she knew the child must be dead. The lizards scattered into the rainy night, chirping and squealing, leaving behind only bloody three-toed tracks, like birds.

* * *

**Isla Nublar was only the beginning...**


End file.
